236

HISTORY 03? ENGLAND,

CHAP.

XII.

168 !).

The siegeof Lon-donderryraised.

sacks of pease and biscuit, ankers of brandy. Not many hoursbefore, half a pound of tallow and three quarters of a pound ofsalted hide had been weighed out with niggardly care to everyfighting man. The ration which each now received -was threepounds of flour, two pounds of beef, and a pint of pease. It iseasy to imagine with what tears grace was said over the suppersof that evening. There was little sleep on either side of thewall. The bonfires shone bright along the whole circuit of theramparts. The Irish guns continued to roar all night; and allnight the bells of the rescued city made answer to the Irish gunswith a peal of joyous defiance. Through the whole of thethirty first of July the batteries of the enemy continued to play.But, soon after the sun had again gone down, flames were seenarising from the camp; and, when the first of August dawned,a line of smoking ruins marked the site lately occupied by thehuts of the besiegers; and the citizens saw far off the longcolumn of pikes and standards retreating up the left bank of theFoyle towards Strabane. *

So ended this great siege, the most memorable in the annalsof the British isles. It had lasted a hundred and five days.The garrison had been reduced from about seven thousandeffective men to about three thousand. The loss of the be-siegers cannot be precisely ascertained. Walker estimated itat eight thousand men. It is certain from the despatches ofAvaux that the regiments which returned from the blockadehad been so much thinned that many of them were not morethan two hundred strong. Of thirty six French gunners whohad superintended the cannonading, thirty one had been killedor disabled.** The means both of attack and of defence had

* Walker; Mackenzie; Ilistoire do la Revolution d’lrlande, Amster-dam, 1691; London Gazette, Aug. ft . 1689; Letter of Buchan among theNairne MSS.; Life of Sir John Leake; The Londeriad; Observations onMr. Walker’s Account of the Siege of Londonderry, licensed Oct. 4. 1689.

** Avaux to Seignelay, July •$§.; to Lewis, Aug. ft.