31: OLD WARDOrR CASTLE. 



About Die middle of January promise of relief came from Sir 

 William Waller, but tlie relief did not come, and the besiegers 

 renewed their efforts to lurdermine the walls ; the new com- 

 mander of the Royalists, who had been a friend of the Ludlow 

 family, lu'ged the Colonel to surrender and so save his life. More 

 courtesy again, you see. Shortly after this, after remaining upon 

 guard for two nights, Colonel I.udlow lay down to sleep, and was 

 awakened between ten and eleven by the explosion of the mine. 

 The doors of his bedroom were blown open, the window blown out, 

 and a great breach made. An attempt on the enemy's part to 

 enter was made, but the defenders, only alx)ut 100 men, barricaded 

 the breaches and still held out. The explosion had killed three 

 men, destroyed tire corn, and the garrison had but tour days' flesh 

 food left. 



Things were becoming desperate : some of the besieged, especially 

 the minister, urged Ludlow to surrender ; he yielded to their 

 entreaties so far as to call a parley, but the besiegers refused to 

 treat now, as their previous offers had been rejected. One thing 

 strikes us much, and that is the small loss of life ; not one of the 

 garrison had been killed ])y shot during the storm, and of the 

 assailants only ten. 



After this followed another friendly colloquy, which, however, 

 came to nothing ; but the besieged were l)eginning to lose heart, 

 and so at last Ludlow offered to give up the castle on four conditions 

 — 1. Quarter for all the garrison ; 2. Civil usage for all his party ; 

 3. Not to be carried to Oxford ; 4. A speedy exchange. All this 

 was promised and Colonel Barnes asked Ludlow to come out, saying 

 he would find the besiegers more friendly than he expected. Lord 

 Arundell Avas very courteous, saying that though he would rather 

 have Ludlow's company than that of his own children, yet if Ludlow 

 desired it he Avould arrange an exchange of prisoners, Ludlow 

 against the two young Arundells, whom Sir AVilliam Waller held. 

 Poddington expressed his joy at seeing Ludlow alive, though sorry 

 to find him showing so much resolution in so bad a cause. The 

 conference ended in Ludlow agreeing to surrender, the civility 



