“The age of miracles is past,” the tanner said.  “Did we not see, in Germany, how Magdeburg and other Protestant cities were destroyed, with their inhabitants, by the Papists?  No, Brother Williams, the wicked are suffered to work their will here, when they are stronger than the godly, and we must look for no miracles.  I am ready to fight, and, had the council decided otherwise, would have done my share to the last; but my heart sickens, as I look round on the women, the weak, and ailing.  Did James demand that we should renounce our religion, I would say let us all die by sword or Famine rather than consent; but he has offered toleration to all, that none shall suffer for what has been done, and that the property as well as the lives of all shall be respected.

“Truly, it seems to me that resistance would be not bravery, but a sort of madness.  There are promises of aid from England; but how long may we have to wait for them?  And there are but ten days’ provisions in the town.  If these English officers of King William think that resistance is hopeless, why should I, who know nought of war, set myself against them?”

“Because they have not faith,” the minister said, “and you should have faith; because they think only of carnal weapons, and you should trust to the Lord.  Remember Leyden, how help came when all seemed lost.”

“I do,” the tanner replied, “and I remember how the women and children suffered and died, how they dropped in the streets and perished with famine in their houses.  I remember this, and I shrink from saying ’let us resist to the end.’  I should rejoice if they had decided that Derry should be deserted, that the women and children should be sent away to shelter in the mountains of Donegal, and that every man should march out and do combat with the army of James.  We are numerous, and far better armed than the Papists, and victory might be ours; but, were it otherwise, were every man fated to fall on the field, I would still say let us march forward.  It is not death that I fear, but seeing these weak and helpless ones suffer.  I should not envy the feelings of the men who decided on resistance, when the time came that the women and children were dying of hunger around them.  There is a time to fight; and a time to sheath the sword, and to wait until a chance of drawing it successfully again arrives; and methinks that, having such good terms offered, the present is the time for waiting.”

The preacher waved his hand impatiently, and, wrapping himself in his cloak, left the house without another word.  The next day the capitulation was signed, and the following day the army of James was seen approaching, and presently halted, on a hill within cannon shot of the town.