half-moons, and ditches, as neatly and methodically as if there were no
ceaseless cannonade in their ears, and as if the workmen were not at
every moment summoned to repel assaults upon the outward wall. They.
sent careful drawings of Little Troy to Maurice and the States, and
received every encouragement to persevere, together with promises of
ultimate relief.

But there was one serious impediment to the contemplated construction of
the new earth-works. They had no earth. Nearly everything solid had
been already scooped away in the perpetual delving. The sea-dykes had
been robbed of their material, so that the coming winter might find
besiegers and besieged all washed together into the German Ocean, and it
was hard digging and grubbing among the scanty cellarages of the
dilapidated houses. But there were plenty of graves, filled with the
results of three years' hard fighting. And now, not only were all the
cemeteries within the precincts shovelled and carted in mass to the inner
fortifications, but rewards being offered of ten stivers for each dead
body, great heaps of disinterred soldiers were piled into the new
ramparts. Thus these warriors, after laying down their lives for the
cause of freedom, were made to do duty after death. Whether it were just
or no thus to disturb the repose--if repose it could be called--of the
dead that they might once more protect the living, it can scarcely be
doubted that they took ample revenge on the already sufficiently polluted
atmosphere.

On the 17th June the foe sprang a mine under the western bulwark; close
to a countermine exploded by the garrison the day before. The assailants
thronged as merrily as usual to the breach, and were met with customary
resolution by the besieged; Governor Uytenhoove, clad in complete armour,
leading his troops. The enemy, after an hour's combat, was repulsed with