full well the thousand obstacles which it had to surmount. They had
guessed its progress by the illumination from the blazing villages;
they had heard its salvos of artillery on its arrival at North Aa;
but since then, all had been dark and mournful again, hope and fear,
in sickening alternation, distracting every breast. They knew that
the wind was unfavourable, and, at the dawn of each day, every eye was
turned wistfully to the vanes of the steeples. So long as the easterly
breeze prevailed, they felt, as they anxiously stood on towers and
house-tops that they must look in vain for the welcome ocean. Yet,
while thus patiently waiting, they were literally starving; for even
the misery endured at Harlem had not reached that depth and intensity
of agony to which Leyden was now reduced. Bread, maltcake, horse-flesh,
had entirely disappeared; dogs, cats, rats, and other vermin were
esteemed luxuries. A small number of cows, kept as long as possible,
for their milk, still remained; but a few were killed from day to day,
and distributed in minute proportions, hardly sufficient to support
life among the famishing population. Starving wretches swarmed daily
around the shambles where these cattle were slaughtered, contending
for any morsel which might fall, and lapping eagerly the blood as
it ran along the pavement; while the hides, chopped and boiled,
were greedily devoured.

"Women and children, all day long, were seen searching gutters and
dung hills for morsels of food, which they disputed fiercely with the
famishing dogs. The green leaves were stripped from the trees, every
living herb was converted into human food, but these expedients could
not avert starvation. The daily mortality was frightful,--infants
starved to death on the maternal breasts, which famine had parched
and withered; mothers dropped dead in the streets, with their dead
children in their arms.