the besiegers. The supply of provisions found to be stored away was
vastly greater than had been expected, for many of the fugitives had
brought in large stores, and a great number of the inhabitants had been,
for weeks, making preparation for the siege, by buying up quantities of
grain and storing it in their cellars.

Thus, up to the end of the first month, although the allowance of food
was short, no real suffering was undergone by the inhabitants; but, as
time went on, the supplies doled out became smaller and smaller, and
dysentery and fever broke out in the crowded town.

Fierce disputes arose between those belonging to the Established Church
and the Nonconformists, and it was with the greatest difficulty that
Governor Walker prevented the two parties from engaging in open strife.
Day and night, the besiegers' fire continued, and many were killed by the
shells which fell in the city. The fighting men on the walls were far
better off than those who had nothing to do but to wait and suffer, and
it was among the women and children, chiefly, that disease at first made
its victims.

For a time, the children of the families who had taken refuge with the
tanner remained healthy. The visitors were lodged for the most part in
the cellars, so as to be in shelter from the fire of the enemy's mortar;
but John Whitefoot suggested to his cousin that the children would soon
pine and sicken, unless they had air. The tanner gave his consent to
John's establishing a shelter in the yard. A corner was chosen, and a
number of casks were placed along by either wall; on these beams were
laid, for it happened that the tanner had intended, shortly before the
siege, to build a large shed, and had got the timber together for the
purpose.