A few days earlier a man had been glad to obtain for twenty pence a mouthful of carrion scraped from the bones of a starved horse.

A pound of good beef was now sold for three halfpence.
Meanwhile all hands were busied in removing corpses which had been thinly covered with earth, in filling up the holes which the shells had ploughed in the ground, and in repairing the battered roofs of the houses.

The recollection of past dangers and privations, and the consciousness of having deserved well of the English nation and of all Protestant Churches, swelled the hearts of the townspeople with honest pride.

That pride grew stronger when they received from William a letter acknowledging, in the most affectionate language, the debt which he owed to the brave and trusty citizens of his good city.

The whole population crowded to the Diamond to hear the royal epistle read.