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"before it, by a trumpet they summon the castle "to furrender: the reafon pretended was, be"cause the castle being a receptacle of cavaliers "and malignants, both Houses of Parliament "had ordered it to be fearched for men and "arms; and withal by the fame trumpeter de"clared, that if they found either money or plate, "they would feize on it for the use of the Par"liament. The Lady Arundell (her husband "being then at Oxford, and fince that dead "there) refused to deliver up the castle; and ઃઃ bravely replied, that she had a command from "her Lord to keep it, and fhe would obey his "command.

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Being denied entrance, the next day, being "Wednesday the third of May, they bring up "the cannon within mufquet-fhot, and begin "the battery, and continue from the Wednesday "to the Monday following, never giving any "intermiffion to the befieged, who were but "twenty-five fighting men, to make good the

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place against an army of 1300 men. In this "time they spring two mines; the first in a vault, "through which beer and wood and other necef"faries were brought into the castle: this did "not much hurt, it being without the foundation " of the caftle. The fecond was conveyed in the "small vaults; which, by reason of the inter

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"course between the feveral paffages to every "office, and almost every room in the castle, did "much shake and endanger the whole fabrick.

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"The rebels had often tendered fome unrea"fonable conditions to the befieged to furrender; as to give the ladies, both the mother and the daughter-in-law, and the women and children, ¢ quarter, but not the men. The ladies both infinitely scorning to facrifice the lives of their "friends and fervants to redeem their own from "the cruelty of the rebels, who had no other "crime of which they could count them guilty "but their fidelity and earnest endeavours to pre"serve them from violence and robbery, choose

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bravely (according to the nobleness of their "honourable families from which they were both "extracted) rather to die together than live on "fo difhonourable terms. But now, the castle "brought to this diftrefs, the defendants few, "oppreffed with number, tired out with conti"nual watching and labour from Tuesday to

ત Monday, fo diftracted between hunger and "want of reft, that when the hand endeavoured "to adminifter food, furprised with fleep it for66 got its employment, the morfels falling from "their hands while they were about to eat, de"luding their appetite; now, when it might "have been a doubt which they would first have

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"laded their mufquets withal, either powder "before bullet, or bullet before powder, had not "the maid-fervants (valiant beyond their fex) "affifted them, and done that service for them;

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lastly, now, when the rebels had brought pe"tarrs, and applied them to the garden-doors, "(which, if forced, opened a free paffage to the castle,) and balls of wild-fire to throw in at "their broken windows, and all hopes of keeping the caftle was taken away; now, and not "till now, did the befieged found a parley. And "though in their Diurnals at London they have "told the world that they offered threefcore "thoufand pounds to redeem themselves and the

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caftle, and that it was refufed, yet few men take "themselves to be bound anything the more to "believe it because they report it. I would "Mafter Cafe would leave preaching treafon, and inftruct his difciples to put away lying, and fpeak every man truth of his neighbour. Cer

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tainly the world would not be fo abused with "untruths as they now are; amongst which "number this report was one: for if they in the

caftle offered fo liberally, how came the rebels "to agree upon articles of furrender fo far be"neath that overture? for the Articles of Sur"render were thefe:

"First, that the Ladies and all others in the caftle fhould have quarter.

Secondly,

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Secondly, That the Ladies and fervants "fhould carry away all their wearing-apparel; "and that fix of the ferving men, whom the "Ladies fhould nominate, fhould attend upon "their perfons wherefoever the rebels fhould difpofe of them.

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"Thirdly, that all the furniture and goods. "in the house should be fafe from plunder; and "to this purpofe one of the fix nominated to "attend the ladies, was to ftay in the castle, and "take an inventory of all in the houfe; of which "the Commanders were to have one copy, and "the Ladies another.

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"But being on these terms masters of the "caftle and all within it, 'tis true they obferved "the firft article, and fpared the lives of all the befieged, though they had flain in the defence "at leaft fixty of the Rebels. But for the other two, they obferved them not in any part. As "foon as they entered the castle, they first seized CC upon the feveral trunks and packs which they "of the caftle were making up, and left neither "the Ladies nor fervants any other wearing"clothes but what was on their backs.

"There was in the caftle, amongst many rich "ones, one extraordinary chimney-piece, valued "at two thoufand pounds; this they utterly de

"faced,

"faced, and beat down all the carved works "thereof with their pole-axes. There were "likewise rare pictures, the work of the most "curious pencils that were known to these latter "times of the world, and fuch that Apelles him"felf (had he been alive) need not blush to own "for his. These in a wild fury they break and "tear to pieces; a lofs that neither cost nor art " can repair.

"Having thus given them a taste what per"formance of articles they were to expect from "them, they barbaroufly lead the Ladies, and "the young Lady's children, two fons and a

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daughter, prifoners to Shaftesbury, fome four "or five miles from Wardour *.

"While they were prifoners, to mitigate their forrows, in triumph they bring five cart loads "of their richest hangings and other furniture through Shaftesbury towards Dorchester: and "fince that, contrary to their promise and faith,

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given both by Sir Edward Hungerford and "Strode, they plundered the whole caftle: fo

*The learned and illuftrious Mr. Chillingworth was in Wardour Castle when it was taken, having retired thither in very bad health. He was carried by the Parliamentary army first to Salisbury, and then to Chichester; in the Bishop's palace of which city he died foon afterwards.

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