Page:The Siege of London - Posteritas - 1885.djvu/72

60 During the first fortnight of the siege the relative positions of the two armies remained much the same; but by constant and gallant sorties the English were enabled to inflict tremendous loss upon the enemy. At the beginning of the third week of the siege the French crossed the Thames by the Kew Railway Bridge, which had not been destroyed by the English; and, pushing forward a strong force with two field batteries, a simultaneous attack was made upon the defensive works at Hammersmith and Wormwood Scrubbs. Obstinate fighting ensued, lasting for many hours; and thrice were the assailants beaten back with tremendous loss. They were, however, enabled to bring up strong reinforcements and at last succeeded in driving the English in from the Scrubbs, though the Hammersmith lines of defence remained unbroken.

It will thus be seen that the cruel ring of steel was gradually tightening round the vital parts of the great London, the "Metropolis of the World," as it had been proudly called. Its magnificent monuments, its splendid buildings, its glorious bridges had all more or less suffered by the fire of the invaders. In the beleagured City itself hideous and frightful were the scenes that were witnessed and the misery that was suffered. Every species of human sorrow and agony were undergone; the whole place was like a vast Golgotha, and the air at last became pestilential and fetid with the effluvia from the unburied dead left in the streets. Thousands of the dwellers in the lower quarters, driven to desperation by hunger and wretchedness, broke into riot and made constant attacks on the soldiers placed as guards over the depôts of provisions. In these conflicts there was necessarily great loss of life, and labour sufficient could not be found to bury the slain.

Men and women, gaunt, grim, and ghastly, wandered about in hopeless demoralisation; and starving children with eyes starting from their heads and bones protroding through their skins, made piteous wailing as they moan for food; and yet, in spite of all these awful trials, these unparalleled agonies, the word "surrender" was never once uttered; nay, had anyone dared to suggest it he would have been torn to pieces. These representatives of a once mighty nation would not acknowledge defeat. Conquered