I can but get enough of them."

"The good times will come again," John said cheerily. "Now we will have a
story. Which shall it be?"

As the children sat round him, John was delighted to see that even the
two scanty meals they had had, had done wonders for them. The listless,
hopeless look of the last few days had disappeared, and occasionally
something like a hearty laugh broke out among them, and an hour later the
tanner came to the entrance.

"Come to the walls with me, John."

"What is it? What is the matter?" John said, as he saw the look of anger
and indignation on the wasted features of his cousin.

"Come and see for yourself," the latter said.

When they reached the walls, they found them crowded with the
inhabitants. Outside were a multitude of women, children, and old men.
These General Rosen, with a refinement of cruelty, had swept in from the
country round and driven under the walls, where they were left to starve,
unless the garrison would take them in, and divide their scanty supply of
food with them.

"It is monstrous," John cried, when he understood the meaning of the
sight. "What are we to do?"

"We can do nothing," the tanner replied. "The council have met, and have
determined to keep the gates closed. We are dying for the cause. They
must do so too; and they will not die in vain, for all Europe will cry
out when they hear of this dastardly act of cruelty."

The people outside were animated by a spirit as stern as that of the
besieged, and the women cried out, to those on the walls, to keep the
gates shut and to resist to the last, and not to heed them.

The ministers went out through the gates, and held services among the
crowd, and the people on the walls joined in the hymns that were sung
below. So, for three days and nights, the people within and without
fasted and prayed. On the third day, a messenger arrived from King James
at Dublin, ordering General Rosen at once to let the people depart.

The indignation, among the Irish gentlemen in the camp, at Rosen's brutal
order had been unbounded, and messenger after messenger had been sent to
Dublin, where the news excited a burst of indignation, and James at once
countermanded the order of the general. The gates were opened now, and
the people flocked out and exchanged greetings with their friends. A few
able-bodied men in the crowd entered the town, to share in its defence,
while a considerable number of the women and children from within