When Charles the First Was King

it, about the 21st of March in that year. On that day a body of the Parliamentary forces took possession of the upper part of the town and engaged some of our troops in battle, whereby we lost one or two killed, while others were taken prisoners. For a while, however, the lower town was in our hands, and from it we drew further supplies of wood and provisions, thus strengthening ourselves more securely against the siege. It soon became evident to us that the Parliamentarians intended to force us to surrender by means of a blockade rather than by an assault. They commenced a regular series of entrenchments and outworks, and finally surrounded us with a complete circle of forts, guards, and trenches, from which their operations were zealously conducted. We did not suffer them to pursue the making of these works in peace, but continually hampered them with a heavy fire from our towers and battlements, so that there was hardly a day passed in which they did not suffer loss of their men.

Now, if I were to tell you all that happened during the time that I was in the Castle as one of its defenders, I should have to occupy your time somewhat more fully than you would expect, for there were fresh adventures every day, and from one reason or other I was always mixed up with them. Ben and I had joined the division of volunteers serving under Sir John Ramsden, and here we found some very good company, Mr. Shillito, the Mayor of Pontefract, being of us, together with Aldermen Lunn and Wilkinson and other gentlemen of the town, who had banded themselves together to defend the King’s cause. None of us, I think, were disposed to allow the enemy to blockade us in peace, and we were always ready to sally forth and attack them in their trenches and works. Even Ben Tuckett, growing braver every day, did pluck up such spirit that he was never behindhand, and fought with as much bravery as the rest of us.

As for the sallies that we made from the Castle during the next few weeks, they were legion, and in every one of them the enemy came off second best, invariably losing a goodly number of men. On the 4th of April we went out, ninety strong, and charged against Alderman Rusby’s house and killed an officer and three men, after which we set the house and barns on fire. The next day a great party of us, horse and foot, went out under Captains Walkington, Beale, and Smith, and had a brush with the enemy, during which we took two loads of fresh meat that were being carried into the town, and conveyed them safely into the Castle. On Easter Sunday a still greater body of us went out of the Swillington Tower and sallied up Northgate to attack the works situated there; while another party, equally large in numbers, went out from the lower gate and attacked the enemy’s trenches on the south side of the town by the Halfpenny house. In these encounters the Parliamentarians suffered considerably, for though we only lost two men ourselves, we killed one hundred and thirty of our enemies and took one man prisoner, together with a quantity of muskets and swords.

So the struggle went on, never a day passing that did not see some fresh development of hostilities. The Parliamentarians worked steadily at their trenches and forts, and kept up a steady fire at us, and we on our part never ceased to harass and worry them by resolute sallies, in which we always came off with success. Indeed, upon some of these occasions we had a good deal to fight for, for our store of fresh meat was quickly exhausted, and if it had not been for our occasional seizure of cattle we should have had to go without any. Now and then, however, we caught sight of small herds being driven into the town, and on these occasions a body of us would sally forth and fight for them, and we generally did so well that we brought the cattle safe into our courtyard and thus staved off starvation for a few days longer.

At these times nobody fought more keenly or fiercely than Ben Tuckett, whom necessity had succeeded in making a thorough man of war. He would rush upon the enemy with the most terrible cries and shouts, brandishing his sword so vigorously that the Roundheads often flew from him before he had well reached them. Then nobody would rejoice more than he did, and he would return to the Castle driving the captured cattle as if they were some great prize, as indeed they were, fresh meat being ofttimes rare with us.

“You see, Will,” said he one day, aswe stood watching the enemy from the Barbican, “I cannot abide to see cattle going as it were by our very door when we have such need of it inside, and I feel that I must strike a blow for the possession of it, or die. ’Tis such a terrible feeling, that hungering for a slice of good beef or mutton, and thou knowest there have been one or two days when we could not get even a thin shaving of either.”

“There will be a good many days, Ben, in the time that is coming, when I dare say we shall be glad enough of a crust of dry bread.”

“Alas!” said he. “ ’Tis sad to think of. However, what must be, must be. But when I think of thy mother’s larder, Will, and what I have often seen it contain, alack! I am like to weep. Dost thou remember, for instance, the meat pasties that Lucy makes? I would give the King’s crown for one of those meat pasties at this moment.”

I laughed to hear him talk in that fashion, but there was something in what he said, for provisions were not great, and