ne out,
to fight against the besiegers, but the thought of the long slow agony of
starvation was naturally terrible to a lad of good health and appetite.

The mob of Derry had shown good sense in the choice which they made of
their governors. Baker, indeed, who was a military man, was a mere cipher
in the matter. Walker was, in reality, the sole governor. He was a man of
energy and judgment, as well as enthusiastic and fanatical, and he at
once gave evidence of his fitness for the post, and set himself
diligently to work to establish order in the town.

He issued orders that all unable to bear arms, who wished to leave the
town, could do so, while the able-bodied men, now formed into regiments,
were assigned every man his place, and every regiment its quarter, on the
walls. No less than thirty thousand fugitives, exclusive of the garrison,
were shut up in the walls of Derry, and the army which was besieging the
town numbered twenty thousand.

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,