The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott, with memoir of the author.

446 APPENDIX TO THE
thrown at the town; the stock of powder with which
Zaragoza had been stored was exhausted; they had
none at last but what they manufactured day by day;
and no other cannon-balls than those which were shot
into the town, and which they collected and fired back
upon the enemy."In the midst of these horrors and privations, the
pestilence broke out in Zaragoza. To various causes,
enumerated by the annalist, he adds, "scantiness of
fbod, crowded quarters, unusual exertion of body,
anxiety of mind, and the impossibility of' recruiting
their exhausted strength by needful rest, in a city
which was almost incessantly bombarded, and where
every hour their sleep was broken by the tremendous
explosion of mines. There was now no respite, either
by day or night, for this devoted city; even the natural
order of light and darkness was destroyed in Zaragoza;
by day it was involved in a red sulphureous atmosphere of smoke, which hid the face of heaven; by
night, the fire of cannons and mortars, and the flames
of burning houses, kept it in a state of terrific illumination.
"When once the pestilence had begun, it was impossible to check its progress, or confine it to one
quarter of the city. Hospitals were immediately established,-there were above thirty of them; as soon
as one was destroyed by the bombardment, the patients
were removed to another, and thus the infection was
carried to every part of Zaragoza. Famine aggravated
the evil; the city had probably not been sufficiently
provided at the commencement of the siege, and of
the provisions which it contained, much was destroyed
in the daily ruin which the mines and bombs effected.