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.
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