he might relieve himself
from the encumbrance of useless mouths, drove several thousands out of
the city. Henry, with extraordinary clemency, allowed three thousand
to pass through the ranks of his army. He nobly said, "I can not bear
to think of their sufferings. I had rather conquer my foes by kindness
than by arms." But the number still increasing, and the inevitable
effect being only to enable the combatants to hold out more
stubbornly, Henry reluctantly ordered the soldiers to allow no more to
pass.

The misery which now desolated the city was awful. Famine bred
pestilence. Woe and death were every where. The Duke of Nemours,
younger brother of the Duke of Mayenne, hoping that Mayenne might yet
bring relief, still continued the defense. The citizens, tortured by
the unearthly woes which pressed them on every side, began to murmur.
Nemours erected scaffolds, and ordered every murmurer to be promptly
hung as a partisan of Henry. Even this harsh remedy could not entirely
silence fathers whose wives and children were dying of starvation
before their eyes.

The Duke of Mayenne was preparing to march to the relief of the city
with an army of Spaniards. Henry resolved to make an attempt to take
the city by assault before their arrival. The hour was fixed at
midnight, on the 24th of July. Henry watched the sublime and terrific
spectacle from an observatory reared on the heights of Montmartre. In
ten massive columns the Royalists made the fierce onset. The besieged
were ready for them, with artillery loaded to the muzzle and with
lighted torches. An eye-witness thus describes the spectacle:

"The immense city seemed instantly to blaze with
conflagrations, or rather by an infinity of mines sprung in
its heart. Thick whirlwinds of smoke, pierced at intervals by
flashes and long lines of flame, covered the doomed city. The
blackness of darkness at one moment enveloped it. Again it
blazed forth as if it were a sea of fire. The roar of cannon,
the clash of arms, and the shouts of the combatants added to
the horrors of the night."

By this attack all of the suburbs were taken, and the condition of the
besieged rendered more hopeless and miserable. There is no siege upon
record more replete with horrors. The flesh of the dead was eaten. The
dry bones of the cemetery were ground up for bread. Starving mothers
ate their children. It is reported that the Duchess of Montpensier was
offered three t