272 ; JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
into action. Again they fell on, and this time succecded, driving 
the Royalists pell-mell before them, and being held back with 
difficulty from assailing their batteries. The work was then 
destroyed. What it cost the garrison we have no means of 
knowing; but as nearly 100 Cavaliers were slain, the loss of the 
stormers must have been severe. 
The effect of this blow was such, coupled with the fact that 
fever had broken out in the camp, many soldiers falling victims,* 
that on Christmas-day, the date by which Maurice said the town 
should be taken, the Siege was raised; the Prince as a parting 
shot issuing an order to the constables and tything-men of Egg 
Buckland and St. Budeaux against the relief of the garrison : 
“‘Forasmuch as divers persons disaffected to his Majesty’s service make 
their daily recourse into Plymouth, furnishing the rebells there with all 
manner of provision for man and horse, contrary to his Majesty’s proclama- 
tion prohibiting the same; these are therefore to signify that if any person, 
of what degree or quality soever, presume to have any commerce or dealing 
with any in the said town, or take or carry with him any horses, oxen, 
kine, or sheep, or other provision for man or horse, into the said town of 
Plymouth for the relief of the rebells there, every such person and persons 
shall be proceeded against, both in person and estate, as abettors of this 
horrid rebellion and contemners of his Majesty’s proclamation, according to 
the limitation of the Court of Wards in such cases provided: willing and 
requiring all mayors, justices of peace, bailiffs, constables, and all other 
of his Majesty’s officers and ministers, to cause them to be forthwith pub- 
lished in all churches, chapples, markets, and other places, whereby his 
Majesty’s loving subjects may the better take notice thereof.—Mavricez.” 
It was time for some relief. The privations of the inhabitants 
had been severe, and their death-rate had risen very high. The 
registers of St. Andrew, which deal only with the actual burials in 
the churchyard, show that in December alone, instead of the 18 or 
20 which would have been a fair average for that time of the year, 
there were 132. Provisions had been very scarce ; and it is acknow- 
ledged with devout thankfulness, that when the poor people were 
grievously punished, “there came an infinite number of pilchards 
into the harbour within the Barbican, which the people took up 
with great ease in baskets, which did not only refresh them for the 
present, but a great deal more were taken, preserved and salted, 
whereby the poor got much money.” Another providential occur- 
rence was the fact that the day after the Siege was raised, instead 
of earlier, part of two of the works fell down. 
* Wuiretock, ‘ Memorials,” p. 75. 
