In the Days of Queen Mary

by E. E. Crake

All around Calais lay a great host of Frenchmen, and the banners of Guise and De Nevers revealed the fact that the young Duc, the hope of France, was there in person, eager to wipe out the disgrace of St. Quentin. Everywhere the French were throwing up batteries and bringing up their artillery, their first point of attack being the forts of Froyton and Neslé.

Then the guns of the citadel opened fire, and few and feeble as they were their deep roar filled the air and shook the old houses of the town to their foundations.

Wentworth and Gray were everywhere, haranguing, cheering, and encouraging their men. Gray was a famous engineer and, with his own hands, he aimed and fired the best guns the citadel possessed, doing evident execution upon the batteries in course of construction by the foe.

Thus an hour flew by, it was broad daylight now and the rain and storm of the preceding night had ceased. Suddenly the French batteries began to play upon the fortresses on the city walls, and the uproar of war was increased tenfold.

It was at once perceived by the garrison that Guise possessed very powerful battering-trains, for which their poor artillery was no match. And though Lord Gray had brought a reinforcement of two hundred men to the garrison of Calais, no artillery had been sent by the Government.

So the unequal duel went on throughout the day, with a roar so deafening that it was heard both at Antwerp and at Dover. The very heavens seemed to be fighting against England, for there, at Dover, was a great train of artillery waiting for transit to Calais. But the winds were fiercely contrary, and not an English vessel could put to sea.

The darkness of night did not stay the conflict, for the French artillerymen had got their "mark and distance," and the fierce cannonade never ceased.

At daybreak on January 2nd, the Duke of Guise stormed the forts of Froyton and Neslé in overwhelming force and carried them. On the next day Newhaven Bridge and Risbank surrendered, and henceforth all the strength of Guise's thirty-five great guns was directed upon the town and the castle. There was no rest, day or night, for the besieged garrison, each hour brought their inevitable destruction nearer.

It was on the fifth day that a great breach in the citadel was effected, and then came the final struggle in which Captain Lascelles fell at the head of his troops; the victorious foe overwhelmed the defenders in irresistible force and the French flag was planted on the walls of the citadel!

The Castle of Guisnes still held out under Lord Gray, but on the eighth day of the siege it was captured, and with it went Hames.