The besiegers still continued their bombardment of the House but without much effect; and the garrison continued to have much the best of the sorties. On the morning of Wednesday, April 11, Captain Farmer and Captain Radcliffe led out about half the garrison from a postern gate and drove the Parliamentarians from most of their works, which had now been formed all round the walls, Radcliffe showing especial bravery. The retreat was secured by Captain Ogle and Captain Chisenhale. The royalists declared that they had spiked all the besiegers' guns, but as the bombardment continued after this without any intermission the statement must be false. They were evidently obliged to take great precautions against the cannon shot, and men were constantly on the watch with damp cloths to prevent the buildings from catching fire. Towards the middle of April a chance shot entered the window of Lady Derby's room "but was too weak to fright her from the lodging"; ten days afterwards, however, two larger cannon bullets broke into the room, and she was obliged to remove to another part of the building. The royalists were most in fear of the large mortar piece; and their next expedition was made with the object of effecting its capture. About 4 a.m. on April 26th,[130] a sortie in force was made. The walls and gates were well guarded, and a reserve told off to assist a retreat if necessary; Captain Chisenhale then issued from the eastern gate, surprised the besiegers and after severe fighting drove them from their trenches. The great cannon was placed upon a sledge which had been kept in readiness and drawn within the walls. The Parliamentarians must have suffered considerably in this skirmish, and they lost still more in prestige. Inside Lathom there were extravagant expressions of joy at the capture of the dreaded mortar; and the royalists boasted that the very day of its capture Rigby had invited a number of his friends to witness the surrender of the House. The besiegers were proportionately discouraged by its loss; and many of their other guns were now removed in order to prevent their capture.
The Parliamentarians now endeavoured to cut off the water supply from Lathom and to drain the moat. The first was impossible, as the springs that supplied the well inside Lathom were drawn from higher ground east of the House. A trench was begun in order to empty the moat, but it does not seem to have been proceeded with. The country people of the neighbourhood were pressed into service, and many weeks' work was spent in vain. The fidelity of the chief engineer, whose name was Brown, was by no means above suspicion, and he was at any rate incompetent if not treacherous. In one of the sorties by the garrison an assistant engineer was taken prisoner, and he explained the design of the trench.
Colonel Assheton had been called away from the siege early in April. After the sortie of April 26, the discouragement of the Parliamentarian troops was great, and Rigby wrote in much depression to the Committee at Manchester. "We are obliged to repel them five or six times in a night. These constant alarms, the numbers of the garrison, and our great losses, compel our men to mount guard every other night and even two nights in succession. For my part I am spent with anxiety and fatigue."[131] It is therefore surprising to find that summonses for surrender were still being sent into Lathom. The very day before the capture of the mortar a demand was sent to the Countess "to yield up Lathom House, all the persons, goods and arms within it to receive the mercy of the Parliament, and to return her final answer the next day before 2 o'clock." It was to this summons which Lady Derby returned her famous answer—
"Tell that insolent rebel, he shall neither have persons, goods nor house; when our strength and provision is spent, we shall find a fire more merciful than Rigby, and then if the providence of God prevent it not my goods and house shall burn in his sight; myself, children and soldiers rather than fall into his hands, will seal our religion and loyalty in the same flame."
This heroic declaration roused the garrison to wild enthusiasm, and they broke out into loud exclamations "we will die for His Majesty and your honour. God save the King."[132]
After this very little was done before Lathom for some weeks, though skirmishing continued at intervals with varying success. The Parliamentarians now confined themselves to a blockade of the House, and even this was not very effective. For five or six weeks before the end of the siege there seems to have been practically no fighting. The besiegers continued at work in their trenches, but a heavy fall of rain which caused some of the earth to fall in and killed three men, interfered with this undertaking. The royalists stated, and probably with some truth, that the besiegers were so disheartened that they could not prevent their men from deserting in large numbers.
At a meeting of the Committee in Manchester on April 23rd, it was resolved to raise additional troops for the siege at Lathom, and to assess a weekly amount of £4,627/6/4 on the whole county, except Lonsdale Hundred and Garstang Parish, which were already being taxed to maintain the siege of Greenhalgh Castle.[133] It is improbable, however, that these resolutions were carried into effect, for the attack showed no more vigour than before; and it had little prospect of success long before the approach of Prince Rupert effected a complete change in the position of affairs. It was not till towards the end of May that news came of Rupert's march, and Colonel Rigby again sent a summons to Lathom to surrender. This was of course refused; and the same day a messenger arrived from the Earl of Derby with news of the Prince's approach. This was, as a matter of fact, only two days before Rupert crossed the Mersey, and as soon as this was ascertained, the Parliamentarian troops marched away from Lathom with all haste. (May 27.) The royalists claimed that the besiegers had lost 500 men during the siege.[134]
Note on the Site of Lathom House.
Almost incredible as it seems, not only has old Lathom House completely disappeared but it is impossible to decide with any certainty where it stood. The present house is not large and was evidently all planned at the time it was built, which was early in the eighteenth century. It is said that it stands on a part of the former site, and certain parts of it, of darker stone than the rest, are supposed to have come from the former building; moreover a hundred yards or so before the house (which faces south) and drawn round it for about three hundred yards is a shallow depression which is said to be the old moat. This has been filled in at the back of the present house to make a garden. Excavations near the present site are said to have discovered human remains.