126 PAPERS, ETC. 
The effects of the siege are still visible in the 
shattered walls. 
During the siege, the garrison, to delude the 
besiegers, caused a young porking pig they chanced 
to have in the castle, to be conveyed into one of 
the back towers, where its cries could be distinctly 
heard, and there, pulling him violently by the ears 
and tail, would have it believed that every day at 
ten in the forenoon they killed a swine for their 
fresh provisions.—Unfortunately a deserter from 
the castle turned the joke against the garrison. 
The besiegers having procured a gun (a thirty- 
six pounder) from Shepton Mallet, battered the 
thin part of the wall, (probably shewn them by the 
same deserter) where the staircase led to the upper 
apartments; and having made a breach, still visible, 
the garrison were so intimidated that they sur- 
rendered. The number of the garrison is stated by 
some to have been fourteen, by others twenty- 
four. 
Seven ofthe enemy were killed, and mostly by 
one marksman, who, watching his opportunity from 
the turrets, seldom failed to strike his man. The 
besieged lost none but the above mentioned deser- 
ter. One of the besiegers, in contempt of the 
small garrison, had the audacity to climb a fruit 
tree in a garden where the manor mansion now 
stands, to steal the fruit. It was so near the 
castle that he was brought down by the first shot 
from the watchful marksman on the walls. 
