all were driven with drawn swords under the walls of the town. The besieged, on the other hand, by way of a retaliation for the sufferings of their countrymen, erected a gibbet on the bastion nearest the enemy, and gave orders to hang up all the prisoners who were in their hands. During two days and two nights the unhappy victims of Rosen's resentment continued at the foot of the walls, without meat, drink, fire, or shelter, where many hundreds of them died. At the end of that time, such of them as were able to go away were permitted to do so, the cruelty of Rosen's design being such as to prevent its full execution. But those who died were the most fortunate; for the others, filled with the seeds of diseases and with dejection, as they wandered homewards, beheld on all sides their habitations in ashes, here and there at distances the smoke of some not extinguished, and their cattle, furniture, and provisions carried off. A vast silence reigned over the land, and they envied their companions who were at rest from their miseries. It would be inhuman to the memory of the unhappy to impute the disgrace of this action to James. He revoked the order as soon as he heard of it, because his own sufferings had probably taught him to feel for those of

others.

As soon as the poor people were allowed to retire from under the walls, and return to their homes, the gallows which the besieged had erected, in order, by way of retaliation, to hang their prisoners, was taken down, and the prisoners sent back to their places of confinement in the city. This happened in the beginning of July, before which time the famine had increased to a degree at which it was hardly possible for the garrison to continue to hold out.

During the whole of July the siege was continued, and the city filled with a starving and emaciated population, into the midst of which the balls and shells of the enemy were constantly flying. "On the 9th of July," says one historian of the siege, "the allowance was a pound of tallow to every soldier in the garrison. They mixed it with meal, ginger, pepper, and aniseseed, and made excellent pancakes. Charming meat this was; for during the preceding fortnight horse flesh was eaten, and at this time the carcase of a dog was reckoned good meat. The pale and emaciated victims of hunger were every day seen collecting wild vegetables and weeds, and all kinds of sea-wreck, which they devoured greedily, to the total ruin of their health." In a few days the destitution became even greater, from the exhaustion of those articles to which the garrison had resorted as a substitute for food. About the 20th of July, a merchant in Derry discovered a method for supplying the garrison for six or seven of the severest days of want. He showed them where there was a considerable quantity of starch, which they mixed with tallow, and fried as pancakes. Oatmeal, which before the siege was to be had for fourpence, was now sold at six shillings a peck;

butter for fivepence an ounce; and all other food that could be procured was proportionably dear. A story is told of a poor man whom hunger had, at this melancholy time, compelled to kill his dog and dress the flesh. Just as he was about to feast, an inexorable creditor, equally hungry, came in to demand a debt, which the man was unable to pay in any other way than by resigning the carcase of the dead dog to the unbidden guest. On the 27th of July, the market-prices of such provisions as were to be had were as follow:-Horse flesh, per pound, one shilling and eightpence; a quarter of a dog, fattened, it was supposed, by eating dead bodies, five shillings and sixpence; a dog's head, two shillings and sixpence; a cat, four and sixpence; a rat, one shilling; a mouse, sixpence; a pound of taflow, four shillings; a pound of salted hides, one shilling; a quart of horse's blood, one shilling; a handful of sea-weed, twopence; a quart of meal, one shilling. At this time, according to the account of Governor Walker, the garrison were looking forward to the necessity of subsisting on human flesh; and he mentions a fat hypochondriac gentleman who, with the prospect of such a condition before him, shut himself up for several days, because he imagined some of the starving soldiers were casting cannibal-like looks upon him as he passed them in the street.

the

At length Kirk, who had all this time been idle, resolved, foreseeing the surrender of the city unless something were done for its relief, to make an attempt to throw provisions into it by means of three victual ships which should sail up the river under the convoy of a man-of-war. "As soon," says Dalrymple, "as these vessels approached the town, on the 30th of July, besieging army hastened to that side, some to oppose them, and the rest to gratify their curiosity. That part of the garrison which was not upon duty ranged themselves along the walls nearest to the river, with eyes intent, and hands lifted up to Heaven for the success of the convoy. The ship of war, by galling the enemy's batteries, drew their fire upon itself, and thus saved the victuallers from danger. The foremost of the victuallers, at the first shock, broke the boom, but ran aground in consequence of the turn which this gave to her course. A shout of triumph burst from the besiegers at the sight of this accident. Multitudes of them, quitting their ranks, flew to the shore, and plunged into the water. Some pushed off with their hands the boats they found there; others leaped into them; all advanced, or called to advance, against the vessel in distress. The smoke of the enemy's fire and of her own covered her from the sight of the besieged. During this darkness and confusion the besiegers called from the opposite side of the river that the vessel was taken. A shrill cry of misery, like the wailings of women, was heard from the walls. The common paleness of fear appeared not upon men who had lost all sense of it. One who was an eye-witness relates that, in the depth of despair, they looked black

in the eyes of each other. But in a little time the victualler was seen emerging from the smoke, having got off by the rebound of her own guns; and she and the others, amid the tumultuous cries of both parties, sailed up to the town." Derry was saved; and next day the enemy abandoned the ground.

During this siege of three months and a half, a garrison of 7500 men was reduced to 4000, of whom about 1000 were from that time unfit for service, in consequence of the injuries, whether local or constitutional, which they had sustained. Of the remainder of the population, about 7000 are believed to have died by hunger, disease, and the enemy's fire.

SIEGES DURING THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

The cruelties enacted during the French revolutionary movements were among the most detestable events recorded in history, for they had, in most cases, nothing but a mean vengeance for their object. The sufferings of the Vendéans, of which an account is given in a former tract (No. 16), were equalled by what the unfortunate inhabitants of Lyons endured by orders of the National Convention (1793). Disinclined to the cause of the revolution, the Lyonese endeavoured to defend their city against an army of 60,000 troops, sent to bring them under subjection. The walls were manned by 30,000 citizens, who resolved to die rather than yield up the town to the crew who assailed them. For sixty-three days Lyons endured a bombardment, which demolished a large portion of the city, while the famine which existed within the walls aggravated the general horrors of the scene. Not, however, till upwards of 30,000 persons had been killed, or died of hunger, was the place rendered up, and then it was a heap of ruins. During this terrific siege, there were fired 11,000 shot and 27,000 shells, a number of the bullets being red-hot. Of the unhappy inhabitants who escaped destruction, large numbers were guillotined, and many were put to death by being enfiladed in rows with cannon-shot.

A scene equally characteristic of war is referred to, as follows, by Charles Sumner in his much-admired Peace Oration (Boston, 1845): In the autumn of 1799, the armies of the French republic, which had dominated over Italy, were driven from their conquests, and compelled, with shrunk forces, under Massena, to seek shelter within the walls of Genoa. After various efforts by the Austrian general on the land, aided by a bombardment from the British fleet in the harbour, to force the strong defences by assault, the city is invested by a strict blockade. All communication with the country is cut off on the one side, while the harbour is closed by the ever-wakeful British watch-dogs of war. Within the beleaguered and unfortunate city are the peaceful inhabitants, more than those of Boston in number, besides the French troops. Provisions soon become scarce, scarcity sharpens into want, till fell famine, bringing blindness and madness in her

train, rages like an Erinnys. Picture to yourself this large population, not pouring out their lives in the exulting rush of battle, but wasting at noonday-the daughter by the side of the mother, the husband by the side of the wife. When grain and rice fail, flax-seed, millet, cocoas, and almonds are ground by hand-mills into flour; and even bran, baked with honey, is eaten, not to satisfy, but to deaden hunger. During the siege, but before the last extremities, a pound of horse flesh is sold for 32 cents [1s. 4d.]; a pound of bran for 30 cents [1s. 3d.]; a pound of Hour, 1 dollar 75 cents [about 6s. 6d.]. A single bean is soon sold for 4 cents [2d.]; and a biscuit of three ounces for 2 dollars 25 cents [about 10s. 6d.]; and finally none are to be had. The miserable soldiers, after devouring all the horses in the city, are reduced to the degradation of feeding on dogs, cats, rats, and worms, which are eagerly hunted out in the cellars and common sewers. Happy were now, exclaims an Italian historian, not those who lived, but those who died! The day is dreary from hunger; the night more dreary still, from hunger accompanied by delirious fancies. Recourse is now had to herbs-monk's rhubarb, sorrel, mallows, wild succory. People of every condition, women of noble birth and beauty, seek on the slope of the mountain, enclosed within the defences, those aliments which nature destined solely for the beasts. A little cheese, and a few vegetables, are all that can be afforded to the sick and wounded -those sacred stipendiaries upon human charity. Men and women, in the last anguish of despair, now fill the air with their groans and shrieks; some in spasms, convulsions, and contortions, gasping their last breath on the unpitying stones of the streets. Alas! not more unpitying than man. Children, whom a dying mother's arms had ceased to protect-the orphans of an hour-with piercing cries seek in vain the compassion of the passing stranger; but none pity or aid them. The sweet fountains of sympathy are all closed by the selfishness of individual distress. In the general agony, the more impetuous rush out of the gates, and impale themselves on the Austrian bayonets, while others precipitate themselves into the sea. Others still (pardon the dire recital!) are driven to eat their shoes, and devour the leather of their pouches; and the horror of human flesh has so far abated, that numbers feed, like cannibals, on the bodies of the dead. At this stage the French general capitulated, claiming and receiving what are called 'the honours of war;' but not before twenty thousand innocent persons, old and young, women and children, having no part or interest in the war, had died the most horrible of deaths. The Austrian flag floated over the captured Genoa but a brief space of time; for Bonaparte had already descended, like an eagle, from the Alps, and in less than a fortnight afterwards, on the vast plains of Marengo, shattered, as with an iron mace, the Austrian empire in Italy."

SCENES IN EGYPT.

Napoleon's ambitious and disastrous attempt to conquer Egypt was productive of great sufferings among the unfortunate inhabitants of that interesting country, as well as among the invading forces. Speaking of the appearance of the country after an engagement with the Egyptian soldiery or Mamelukes, Miot observes-"I rode through the midst of 3000 slaughtered Mamelukes. My horse trembled under me while I fixed my eyes on those poor victims of ambition and vanity, and said to myself, We cross the sea; we brave the English fleet; we disembark in a country which never thought of us; we plunder their villages, and slay or ruin their inhabitants; we wantonly run the hazard of dying with hunger and thirst; we are every one of us on the point of being assassinated; and all this for what?" Proceeding onwards "The whole way was tracked with the bones and bodies of men and animals that had perished in those dreadful wastes. If the eagles and vultures had arrived in time, bones only were left to bleach upon the burning sands; otherwise the carcase was presently dried up till it resembled a mummy. There was but one single tree to be seen along the whole journey; and to warm themselves at night (for the cold was so severe, that sleep would otherwise have been dangerous), they gathered together these dry bones and bodies of the dead, and it was by a fire composed of this fuel that Bonaparte lay down to sleep in the desert! The imagination of Dante could not have conceived a more emblematic situation for this incarnate Moloch."

Denon presents similar accounts of this disastrous campaign: "The large village of Bintan," says he, was deserted at the approach of the French. Woful experience having taught the people the necessity of flying from their invaders, whenever they were apprised of their coming, they stripped their houses even to the door and window-frames; and a village thus deserted had the appearance of a ruin a century old. Here, when the French had ransacked the walls to the very foundation, a soldier came out of a cave dragging a she-goat which he had found there. He was followed by an old man, carrying two young infants in his arms; he laid these helpless babes upon the ground, fell on his knees, and without uttering a word, but weeping all the while, pointed to the children and to the goat; for if they were deprived of her milk, they must perish. The goat was killed: and another Frenchman having picked up a third child, whose mother had dropt it in her flight, laid it down beside the other two, not reflecting, while he performed an act of intended kindness, that the three must now perish together!

During the whole expedition a flock of kites and vultures followed the army, hastening to their prey whenever the sound of cannon ceased, and always joined company with the army