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Derry and Limerick July adopted the policy of "No surrender," if they were not allowed until the 26th of July, and the negotiations ended.

On both sides now it was a contest of endurance. On the 10th Kirke's fleet left the Lough and the weary monotony of the succeeding two weeks was broken but by a few skirmishes. The pinch of famine grew sharper; the ravages of disease more widespread. Courts-martial sat daily to repress disorder. Still the city endured sullenly.

Sunday, the 28th of July, dawned, and the lean defenders must have prayed that the end—for good or ill—might come.

As the long summer's day dragged on, the dull eyes of the gaunt watchers on the walls, listlessly gazing down the Foyle, lighted on a few distant sails in the Lough, and many a starving man cursed them for laggards. The flag on the church tower dipped sadly, the cannon boomed a last appeal, and over the water came a reply from the guns of the ships. Towards evening a northerly breeze blew fair up the channel. The tide was coming in and the vessels stood up towards Culmore—as the fleet had often done before. But Walker had ere now written to Kirke that the boom was broken; Schomberg had urged him; and he had ordered a last attempt. 222