The guns of the besiegers soon opened fire, and those on the walls
replied briskly. The besiegers threw up works, but carried on the siege
but languidly, feeling sure that famine must, ere long, force the town to
surrender; and fearing, perhaps, to engage the fresh and ill-trained
levies against a multitude, animated by the desperate resolution and
religious fanaticism of the defenders of the town.

Now that the die was once cast, there was no longer any difference of
opinion among the inhabitants, and all classes joined enthusiastically in
the measures for defence. All provisions in the town were given into one
common store, to be doled out in regular rations, and so made to last as
long as possible; and, as these rations were, from the first, extremely
small, the sufferings of the besieged really began from the first day.

John Whitefoot found that there was but little for him to do, and spent
much of his time on the walls, watching the throwing up of works by the
besiegers.

A regular cannonade was now kept up on both sides; but, though the shot
occasionally fell inside the town, the danger to the inhabitants from
this source was but slight; for, of the six guns possessed by the
besiegers, five were very small, and one only was large enough to carry
shell. All day the various chapels were open, and here the preachers, by
their fiery discourses, kept up the spirits and courage of the people who
thronged these buildings. The women spent most of their time there, and
the men, when off duty from the walls, however fatigued they might be
with their labour, flocked at once to the chapels, to pray for strength
to resist and for early succour. Never were the whole population of the
town more deeply animated by religious excitement, never a whole
population more thoroughly and unanimously determined to die, rather than