THE SIEGE OF DERRY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 402, 10 September 1856, Page 10

THE SIEGE OF DERRY.

(From Macaulay's J1 History of England.") By this time July was far advanced, and the state of the city was, hour by hour, becoming more frightful. The number of the inhabitants had been thinned more by famine and disease than by the fire of the enemy. Yet that fire was sharper and more constant than ever. One of the gates was beaten in : one of the bastions was laid in ruins: but the breaches made by day were repaired by night with indefatigable activity. Every attack was still repelled. But the fighting men of the garrison were so much exhausted that they could scarcely keep their legs. Several of them in the act of striking at the enemy, fell down from mere weakness. A very small quantity of grain remained, and was doL?d out by mouthfuls. The stock of salted hides was considerable, and by gnawing them the garrison appeased the rage of hunger. Dogs, fattened on the blqod of the slain who lay unburied round the town, were luxuries which few could afford to purchase. The price of a whelp's paw was ss. Gd. Nine horses were still alive., and but barely alive. They were so lean that little meat was likely to be found upon them. It was, however, determined to slaughter them for food. The people perished so fast that it was impossible for the survivors to perfoi-m the rights of sepulture. There was scarcely a cellar in which some corpse was not decayirg. Such was the extremity of distress that the rats who came to feast in these hideous dens, were eagerly hunted and greedily devoured. A small fiiii caught iathe river was not to be had for lxonjy. The only price for which such a trer.suri could be obtainel was some liandfuls of- oatmeal. Leprosies, such as .strange and unwholesome diet engenders, made e::i--tjnce a constant torment. The whole city was poisoned 1 y the stench exhaled from the bcxliss of the dead and tin haif-desd. That there should be fits of discont jut and in-i-übordinafon among men enduring such m's.-ry vras inevitable. At one moment it

v,v.:, suspected that 'Walker had liid up sone■.vliere a secret store of food, ar.d w?.s revelling in private, while he exhorted others to suffer resolutely for the good cause. His house was strict! v examined; his innocence was fairly .proved;- lie repaired his popularity, and the garrison, with death in reir ]iroi-j>ect, thronjred to the cathedral to hear him preach, drank in his earnest eiu^ueivctf v/hh delight, and went

forth from the house of God with haggard faces and tottering steps, but with spirit still unsubdued. There were, indeed, some secret plottings. A very few obscure traitors opened communications with the enemy. But it was necessary that all* such dealings should be carefully concealed. None dared to utter publicly any words save words of defiance and stubborn resolution. Even in the extremity, the general cry was 'No urrender.' And there were not wanting voices which, in low tones added,' First the horses and hides, and then the prisoners, and then each other.' It was afterwards related, half in jest, 3'et not without a horrible mixture of earnest, that a corpulent citizen, whose bulk presented a strange contrast to the skeletons which surrounded him, thought it expedient to conceal himself from the numerous eyes which followed him with cannibal looks whenever he appeared in the streets.