le grew weaker
from hunger. Starvation was doing its work. Every day the list of deaths
grew longer, and when people met in the streets they stared at each
other with lean, white, hungry faces, wondering who would be the next to
go.

Still these heroic people had no thought of giving up. They were
fighting for liberty, and they loved that more than life. The French
were daily charging their works, but could not move the stubborn,
starving Rochellese.

The winter dragged on slowly. Spring came, and yet no help had come
from England. In March the French, thinking that the people must be worn
out, hurled their heaviest columns against the lines; but, do what they
would, they could not break through anywhere, and had to go back to
their works, and wait for famine to conquer a people who could not be
conquered by arms.

One morning in May an English fleet was seen outside the mole. The news
ran through the town like wildfire. Help was at hand, and the poor
starving people were wild with joy. Men ran through the streets shouting
and singing songs of thanksgiving. They had borne terrible sufferings,
but now help was coming, and they were sure that their heroic endurance
would not be thrown away. Thousands of their comrades had fallen
fighting, and thousands of their women and children had starved to
death; but what was that if, after all, Rochelle was not to lose her
liberties?

Alas! their hope was a vain one, and their joy soon turned to sorrow.
The English fleet did nothing. It hardly tried to do anything; but
after lying within sight of the town for a while it sailed away again
and left Rochelle to its fate.

Richelieu was sure that Guiton would surrender now, and so he sent a
messenger to say that he would spare the lives of all the people if the
town were given up within three days. But the gallant Guiton was not
ready even yet to give up the struggle. "Tell Cardinal Richelieu," he
said to the messenger, "that we are his very obedient servants;" and
that was all the answer he had to make.

When the summer came some food was grown in the city gardens, but this
went a very little way among so many people, and the famine had now
grown frightful. The people gathered all the shellfish they could find
at low tide. They ate the leaves off the trees, and even the grass of
the gardens and lawns was used for food. Everything that could in any
way help to support life was consumed; everything that could be boiled
into the