riven into the
bottom of the stream. A boom was formed of trunks of fir-trees, strongly
bound together, and fastened by great cables to the shore. Relief from
the fleet, with the river thus closed against it, seemed impossible. Yet
scarcely two days' supplies were left in the town, and without hasty
relief starvation or massacre seemed the only alternatives.

Let us relate the occasion of this siege. James II. had been driven from
England, and William of Orange was on the throne. In his effort to
recover his kingdom, James sought Ireland, where the Catholic peasantry
were on his side. His appearance was the signal for fifty thousand
peasants to rise in arms, and for the Protestants to fly from peril of
massacre. They knew their fate should they fall into the hands of the
half-savage peasants, mad with years of misrule.

In the north, seven thousand English fugitives fled to Londonderry, and
took shelter behind the weak wall, manned by a few old guns, and without
even a ditch for defence, which formed the only barrier between them and
their foes. Around this town gathered twenty-five thousand besiegers,
confident of quick success. But the weakness of the battlements was
compensated for by the stoutness of the hearts within. So fierce were
the sallies of the desperate seven thousand, so severe the loss of the
besiegers in their assaults, that the attempt to carry the place by
storm was given up, and a blockade substituted. From April till the end
of July this continued, the condition of the besieged daily growing
worse, the food-supply daily growing less. Such was the state of affairs
at the date with which we are specially concerned.

Inside the town, at that date, the destitution had grown heart-rending.
The fire of the enemy was kept up more briskly than ever, but famine and
disease killed more than cannon-balls. The soldiers of the garrison
were so weak from privation that they could scarcely stand; yet they
repelled every attack, and repaired every breach in the walls as fast as
made. The damage done by day was made good at night. For the garrison
there remained a small supply of grain, which was given out by
mouthfuls, and there was besides a considerable store of salted hides,
which they gnawed for lack of better food. The stock of animals had been
reduced to nine horses, and these so lean and gaunt that it seemed
useless to kill them for food.

The townsmen were obliged to feed on dogs and rats, an occasional s