mired at, for he laughed whilst he had the head in his hand.' Carte throws no little doubt on the celebrated letter, dated from the Tower, May 4, 1641, and delivered to the King, in the name of the Earl of Strafford, expressing his resolution to give up his life with all the cheerfulness imaginable in the just acknowledgment of his Majesty's exceeding favours, and for the prosperity of his sacred person and the commonwealth, &c. If Mr. Sidney Wortley Montague, second son of Edward, the first Earl of Sandwich, is to be credited, he had, according to Carte, been assured by William, son of the great Earl, that when he was admitted to visit his father the night before the execution, upon occasion of the condemned Earl's advising him to a private life, to have nothing to do with courts, and alleging his own melancholy case of being given up a sacrifice to party rage and malice, after all his merits and services to the Crown, as an instance how little dependence was to be had upon them, he could not help expressing his wonder at those com. plaints of being given up, and then mentioned the affair of the letter, and the consequences thereof. His father, he said, received the account with all the surprise imaginable, and declared to him very solemnly that he had never wrote any such letter; and that it was a pure forgery of his enemies, in order to misguide the King to consent to his death.' It is difficult to deal with historic doubts, but we incline to agree with Mr. Bankes that The story of Lord Strafford's last letter to the King will probably continue to be received as related by Hume and others; nor is it easy to conceive such an extent of villany as the allegation contained in Carte's history implies; and yet it has always appeared inconsistent with the truly noble character of the Earl of Strafford that he should make a generous offer of his life to the King, and afterwards utter reproaches when he found that the offer made by him was acted upon. The King and the Parliament were soon at deadly strife, and the coming man, who was to reap the bloody harvest, soon began to show himself 561 in the field as one that would sett well at the mark.'* The first time I ever took notice of Mr. Cromwell (says Warwick) was in the very beginning of the Parliament held in November, 1640. I came into the house one morning, and perceived a gentleman speaking, whom I knew not, very ordinarily apparelled; for it was a plain cloth suit, which seemed to have been made by an ill country-tailor; his linen was plain and not very clean; and I remember a speck or two of blood upon his little band, which was not much larger than his collar. His hat was without a hat-band. His stature was of a good size; his sword stuck close to his side; his countenance swollen and reddish, his voice sharp and untuneable, and his eloquence full of fervour, For the subject matter would not bear much of reason; it being on behalf of a servant of Mr. Prynne's: I sincerely profess it lessened much my reverence unto that great council, for this gentleman was very much hearkened to. Why was he hearkened to in his plain suit, little blood-specked band, and not over-clean linen? Because he was terribly in earnest; because the cup of bitterness was full to overflowing; because his spirit was strong in him, and he felt that the plain cloth suit-the cloth of friezo -would one day be an overmatch for the cloth of gold. As the civil war spread, the castles and strong places, such as Corfe Castle and Basing House, became of no small importance, and the former was for a long time loyally kept against all comers by an heroic lady, whose name will go down to posterity with that of the celebrated Countess of March, known in Scotland as Black Agnes, who gallantly and successfully defended the Castle of Dunbar against the Earl of Salisbury and his English army. Lady Bankes, the wife of Sir John Bankes, the lauded Attorney-General of former years, and at the time to which we now allude Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and one of his Majesty's most honourable Privy Council, was a daughter of the ancient family of the Hawtreys of Rislip, Middlesex. They were of Norman descent, and came to England at the time of the Conquest. * Sir Philip Warwick's Memoirs. Sir John had received commands from the King to attend him at York in Easter Term, 1642, and had leave from the two houses to obey. The breach between the King and the Parliament growing wider daily, Lady Bankes retired with her children and family to Corfe Castle, and there they remained in peace all the winter, and a great part of the spring until May, 1643, about which time 'the rebels,' as the forces under the command of Sir Walter Erle, Sir Thomas Trenchard, and others are designated by that loyal diurnal, "The Mercurius Rusticus,' had possessed themselves of Dorchester, Lyme, Melcombe, Weymouth, Wareham, and Poole (Portland Castle having been treacherously delivered up), so that Corfe Castle alone remained in obedience to the King. It was of great importance to secure a fortress whose addition would make the whole sea-coast for the Parliament, and a plan for securing it was accordingly laid. The Mayor and Barons of Corfe Castle had, it seems, permission from the lord of the castle to course a stag on May-day, a solemnity which drew forth the gentry of the island and a great concourse of people. Some troops of horse from Dorchester and other places came into the island ostensibly for the hunting, but with very different game in view, for it occurred to them that it would be no difficult matter to surprise the gentlemen during the hunt, and then take the castle. Forewarned is forearmed. The news of their coming dispersed the hunters, spoiled the sport, and Lady Bankes gave orders for the safe custody of the castle gates, and to keep them shut. The troopers having missed their game on the hills, came, some of them, to the castle under a pretence of wishing to see it; but entrance being denied them, the common soldiers confirmed the common report by using threatening language, and words implying intention of taking the castle. The disgusted commanders utterly disavowed any such thought, and denied that they had any such commission; but the wise lady, thinking that such visitors were better out than in, kept her gates closed. Nay, she took occasion to call in a guard to secure the castle against any design of the rebels. The taking in this guard, as it secured her at home, so it rendered her suspected abroad; from thenceforward there was a watchful and vigilant eye to all her actions; whatsoever she sends out or sends in is suspected; her ordinary provisions for her family are by fame multiplied and reported to be more than double what indeed they were, as if she now had an intention to victual and man the castle against the forces of the two Houses of Parliament. Presently letters are sent from the Committee at Poole to demand the four small pieces in the castle, and the pretence was, because the islanders conceived strange jealousies that the pieces were mounted and put on their carriages. Hereupon the Lady Bankes despatched messengers to Dorchester and Poole, to entreat the commissioners that the small pieces might remain in the castle for her own defence; and to take away the ground of the islanders' jealousies, she caused the pieces to be taken off their carriages again: hereupon a promise was made that they should be left to her possession. But there passed not many days before forty seamen (they in the castle not suspecting any such thing) came very early in the morning, to demand the pieces; the lady in person (early as it was) goes to the gates, and desires to see their warrant. They produced one, under the hands of some of the commissioners, but instead of delivering them, though at the time there were but five men in the castle, yet these five, assisted by the maid-servants, at their lady's command, mount these pieces on their carriages again, and loading one of them, they gave fire, which small thunder so affrighted the seamen that they all quitted the castle, and ran away. They being gone, by beat of drum she summons help into the castle, and upon the alarm given, a very considerable guard of tenants and friends came in to her assistance, there being withal some fifty arms brought into the castle from several parts of the island; this guard was kept in the castle about a week. During this time many threatening letters were sent unto the lady, telling her what great forces should be sent to fetch them if she would not by fair means be persuaded to deliver them; and to deprive her of her auxiliaries, all or most of them being neighbours thereabouts, they threaten that, if they op pose the delivery of them, they would fire their houses: presently their wives came to the castle, there they weep and wring their hands, and with clamorous oratory persuade their husbands to come 1853.] Defence of the Castle by Lady Bankes. home, and not by saving others to expose their own houses to spoil and ruin. Now to reduce the castle into a distressed condition, they did not only interrupt two hundred weight of powder, provided against a siege, but they interdict them the liberty of common markets. Proclamation is made at Wareham that no beef, beer, or other provisions should be sold to Lady Bankes, or for her use; strict watches are kept that no messengers should pass into or out of the castle. Being thus distressed, all means of victualling the castle being taken away, and being but slenderly furnished for a siege, either with ammunition or with victual, at last they came to a treaty of composition, of which the result was, that the Lady Bankes should deliver up three or four small pieces, the biggest carrying not above a three-pound bullet, and that the rebels should permit her to enjoy the castle and arms in it, in peace and quietness. No experienced general could have acted with more sagacity than this lady. The paltry pieces being given up, her enemies thought that they might possess themselves of the castle at any moment, relaxed in their vigilance, and instead of the interdict, Lady Bankes had now only to ask and have, and improved the occasion by furnishing the stronghold with provisions of all sorts, a hundred and a-half of powder, and a quantity of match in proportion. On the advance of Prince Maurice and the Marquis of Hertford towards Blandford, she sent a messenger to them, signifying her condition, the importance of the place, and desiring their assistance. Whereupon they sent Captain Lawrence, son of Sir Edward, to command in chief; but as he was without a commission, he could not command money or provisions to be brought in until it was too late. There was, besides, in the castle, Captain Bond, a trusty old soldier. The place was first attacked by between two and three hundred horse and foot, and two pieces of ordnance, which played from the hills on the place, and fired four houses in the town. The besiegers then summoned the castle in vain, and for that time they left it. On a misty morning in June (23rd), Sir Walter 563 Erle, three captains, and between five and six hundred men threw themselves into the town, and commenced operations in earnest, bringing with them a demi-cannon, a culverin, and two sacres. Then follows an account of the siege, and of the usual methods of exciting the soldiery with promise of plunder, &c. When all these arts took no effect, then they fall to stratagems and engines; one they call the 'sow,' and the other the 'boar,' being made with boards lined with wool to dead the shot. The first that moved forward was the sow, but not being musket proof, she cast nine of eleven of her farrow; for the musketeers from this castle were so good marksmen at their legs, the only part of all their bodies left without defence, that nine ran away as well as their broken and battered legs would give them leave, and of the two which neither knew how to run away, nor well to stay for fear, one was slain. The boar, of the two (a man would think) the valianter creature, seeing the ill success of the sow to cast her litter before her time, durst not advance. The cost of this Boar and Sowengines somewhat similar to the Xeλovn (testudo) of the Greeks, and another engine of theirs composed of boards, like the Roman Pluteus, -appears among the charges upon the Dorset county rate for the year 1643: July 7. For boards, hair, and wool, for making a sow against the £2 3 4 Castle July 12. For three truckle .. 0 0 0 W. Stewart Rose, addressing the castle, thus commemorates the onslaught and defeat in his poem on the death of Edward the Martyr:Then when you rear'd, mid sap and siege, The banner of your rightful liege, At your she-captain's call: Who, miracle of womankind! Lent mettle to the meanest hind That mann'd her castle wall. Yet oft the wild sow cast her farrow, * A similar story is related of Black Agnes, who, when the battering engines of the besiegers flung massive stones on the battlements of the castle of Dunbar, caused her maidens, as if in scorn, to wipe away the dust with their handkerchiefs; and But to continue the account of the siege: The most advantageous part of their batteries was the church, which they without fear of profanation used, not only as their rampart but their rendezvous; of the surplice they made two shirts for two soldiers; they broke down the organ, and made the pipes serve for cases to hold their powder and shot; and not being furnished with musket-bullets they cut off the lead of the church, and rolled up and shot it without ever casting it in a mould. Sir Walter and the commanders were earnest to press forward the soldiers, but as prodigal as they were of the blood of the common soldiers, they were sparing enough of their own. It was a general observa * tion that valiant Sir Walter never willingly exposed himself to any hazard, for being by chance endangered with a bullet-shot through his coat, afterwards he put on a bear's skin; and to the eternal honour of the knight's valour be it recorded, for fear of musket-shot (for others they had none) he was seen to creep on all four on the sides of the hill to keep himself from danger. Being armed with drink, they now resolve to storm the castle on all sides and apply their scaling-ladders, it being ordered by the leaders (if I may without a solecism call them so that stood behind, and did not so much as follow) that when twenty were entered they should give a watch-word to the rest, and that was 'Old Wat,' a word ill chosen by Sir Watt Erle, and considering the business in hand, little better than ominous, for, if I be not deceived, the hunters that beat bushes for the fearful timorous hare call him Old Watt.' Here again Mercurius is confirmed by the charges on the county rate for 1643: August 2.-For a firkin of hot waters But to return to the siege : Being now pot-valiant and possessed with a borrowed courage, which was to evaporate in sleep, they divide their forces into two parties, whereof one assaults the middle ward, defended by valiant Captain Lawrence and the greater part of the soldiers; the other assaults the upper ward, which the Lady Bankes (to her eternal honour be it spoken) with her daughters, women, and five soldiers, undertook to make good against the rebels, and did bravely perform what she undertook; for by heaving over stones and hot embers, they repelled the rebels, and kept them from climbing the ladders, thence to throw in that wildfire which every rebel had already in his hand. Being repelled, and having in this siege and this assault lost and hurt an hundred men, old Sir Watt, hearing that the king's forces were advanced, cried, and ran away crying, leaving Sydenham to command in chief, to bring off the ordnance, ammunition, and the remainder of the army, who, afraid to appear abroad, kept sanctuary in the church till night, meaning to sup and run away by starlight; but supper being ready and set on the table, an alarm was given that the king's forces were coming. This news took away Sydenham's stomach; all this provision was but messes of meat set before the sepulchres of the dead he leaves his artillery, ammunition, and (which with these men is something) a good supper, and ran away to take boat for Poole; leaving likewise at the shore about an hundred horse to the next takers, which next day proved good prize to the soldiers of the castle. Thus, after six weeks' strict siege, this castle, the desire of the rebels, the tears of old Sir Watt, and the key of those parts, by the loyalty and brave resolution of this honourable lady, the valour of Captain Lawrence, and some eighty soldiers (by the loss only of two men), was delivered from the bloody intentions of these merciless rebels, on the fourth of August, 1643. The fury with which the castle of Sir John Bankes was attacked at this particular time arose from his conduct on the summer circuit. Presiding at the Salisbury assizes, he had, in his charge to the grand jury, denounced the Earl of Essex, Lord Manchester, and others, as guilty of high treason for continuing in arms against the King, to whose necessities he had liberally subscribed. when the Earl of Salisbury commanded a huge military engine, called a sow, to be advanced to the foot of the walls, she, in a scoffing rhyme, advised him to take good care of his sow, for she would make her farrow her pigs. She then directed that an enormous piece of rock should be discharged on the engine, which crushed it. On another occasion, an arrow shot by an archer of her train pierced the heart of an English knight through his complete suit of armour. 'There goes one of my lady's tiring pins,' said the gallant Earl of Salisbury, in stern admiration of his opponent; 'the countess's love-shafts pierce to the heart.' After a successful defence of six weeks the siege was abandoned by the English troops. 1853.] Blockade of the Castle. For this act, by an ordinance of the Parliament, he forfeited all property, as well real as personal; and for his charge to the grand jury was proclaimed a traitor to the state. The circuit was now terminated; and when Chief Justice Bankes returned after his long absence, he was welcomed by his heroic wife in the castle which she had saved, and found the king's forces in the west in the full tide of success. In July, Sir William Waller had been totally defeated at Roundaway Down, and Bristol had surrendered to the fiery Rupert. In the preceding month, on the 18th of June, Hampden had been mortally wounded in the skirmish of the Chalgrove-field. A clergyman of a neighbouring parish sent the intelligence to the King's quarters, and Sir Philip Warwick introduced the messenger into the royal presence. I found,' says Warwick, the King would have sent him over any chirurgeon of his, if any had been wanting.' In London the parliamentary party was in great difficulties, and republican principles were openly avowed by a few. Harry Martin was sent to the Tower for his bold utterance* of what many secretly felt and wished, but not long to remain there incarcerated. The Independents began to menace the Presbyterians, and the daring enthusiasm of the former broke forth in declarations indicating the most extreme measures. In London the pulpit drum was again vigorously beat to rouse the fainting spirits of the populace, and the metropolis was fortified. On the 10th of August, the King, with his triumphant army, arrived 465 before Gloucester; that city saved London, and the King lost three of his noblest supporters by the deaths of Lord Falkland, the Earl of Carnarvon, and the Earl of Sunderland. The queen had now fled to France, and the tide of the royal success began to ebb in the west. Corfe Castle was almost the only place of strength between Exeter and London which still held out for the royal cause; and Lady Bankes, encompassed by threats and dangers on every side, had before her the prospect of a second gloomy winter, which had hardly set in when her husband, the Chief Justice, unexpectedly died at Oxford.† The new year was ushered in by the execution of the Hothams, father and son, for treason in communicating with the queen. On the 3rd January, in this year, the ordinance for abolishing the Book of Common Prayer was passed; and, on the 10th, Laud was beheaded. On the 14th of June, the decisively crushing battle of Naseby was fought, but some places held out yet. The royal banner still floated over Corfe Castle and the widowed heroine; but it was now in a state of blockade. On the 15th of August, Sherborne surrendered to the parliamentary forces; on the 14th of October, Basing House was taken; on the 28th, the blockade of Exeter was completed, and orders were sent for more effective operations against Corfe Castle to Colonel Bingham, governor of Poole. But the age of chivalry was not gone, and perhaps there was no more gallant expedition during the whole course of the civil war than * That it was better that one family-and he confessed that he alluded to the royal one-should be destroyed, rather than the whole people. + 28th Dec. 1644. 1645. Though the palmy days of heraldry were fast waning, the Mumblazons of that day made an expiring effort which would have done credit to the painters of the Shields of the Seven who went against Thebes. Thus, The Earl of Caernarvon had for his device,' says Thos. Blount, gent., 'a lyon depainted, and six dogs bayting or baying at him; one of the six was bigger than the rest, from whose mouth issued a little scrowel, on which was written Kimbolton; the other dogs had each the name of one of the five accused members. The Lord Molleneux figured a sun obscured by a crescent: the motto from the sun Quid si refulsero? From the crescent the motto ran: Væ Cornibus meis.' A gross insult this on the matrimonial infelicities of the Earl of Essex, who, having married two wives in succession, had found just occasion to divorce them both. Sir Thomas Luke (the original of Hudibras) figured a Bible and a map of London.' With many more for the banners on both sides, showing the rancorous spirit that prevailed. |