The rebels, having spent much time and ammunition, and some men, were now as far from taking the Castle as on the first day they began. At last the Earl of Warwick sent them 150 sailors, with several cart-loads of ammunition and scaling ladders, to take the Castle by assault. Rewards were offered to those who first should scale the walls: twenty pounds to the first, and smaller sums to those who should follow; but all this could not avail with these poor wretches, who were brought hither like sheep to the slaughter. Some of the rebel party had actually exchanged certain death by the rope for that of a chance death by bullets, as some of them were actually condemned criminals let out of prison.
On finding that money rewards and persuasion could not prevail with such abject, low-spirited men, the rebel commanders resolved to give their men strong drink, knowing that drunkenness makes some men fight like lions, who when sober are as cowardly as hares. The only man who was not the worse for drink, says the chronicler, with biting sarcasm, was the commander of the party, Sir Walter Erle, who kept himself sober lest he should become valiant against his will.
Being now possessed with a borrowed courage, the rebels divided their forces into two parties, whereof one assaulted the middle ward, defended by valiant Captain Laurence and the greater part of the soldiers; while the other assaulted the upper ward, which Lady Bankes—“to her eternal honour be it spoken,” says the chronicler—with her daughter, women-servants, and five soldiers, undertook to defend against the rebels. And what she undertook she bravely performed, for by heaving over stones and hot embers, they repelled the rebels and kept them from climbing the ladders. Thus repulsed, and having lost one hundred men, Sir Walter Erle, on hearing that the King’s forces were advancing, ran away, leaving Sydenham as commander-in-chief, who, afraid to appear, kept sanctuary in Corfe Church till nightfall, meaning to sup and run away by starlight; but, supper being ready and set on the table, an alarm was given that the King’s forces were coming. This news took away Sydenham’s appetite; so, leaving artillery, ammunition, and last, but not least, his good supper, the rebels all ran away to take boat for Poole, leaving on the shore about one hundred horses, which proved a valuable prize next day to the soldiers of the Castle.
Thus, after six weeks’ strict siege, Corfe Castle, the desire of the enemy, by the loyalty and brave resolution of Lady Bankes, the valour of Captain Laurence and some eighty soldiers, was delivered from the bloody intentions of these merciless rebels on August 4th, 1643.
Few portions of the kingdom were now undisturbed, and civil war shook the domestic happiness of both the highest and the lowest of the land.
Poor Sir John Bankes, on his return home from circuit, found his wife ready to welcome him within the battered walls of his castle. His wife had become a heroine during his long absence from home, and his children had endless stories to relate of their invincible prowess in the days of danger. He found his castle safe and his property preserved; but Corfe Church had been desecrated and unroofed, the shops in the little town had been plundered, and all that would burn of the stone-built cottages around had been destroyed by conflagration.
There was much, however, at the moment to render this a joyful meeting at Corfe Castle, for it seemed as if the sun of the King’s fortune was about to ascend again. But in 1644 the tide of royal success, which had flowed so steadily through the western counties in the preceding year, was now ebbing fast in the county of Dorset. On June 16th, 1644, Weymouth surrendered to the Earl of Essex, and three days afterwards Dorchester followed suit. On August 10th, 1644, Colonel Sydenham and Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper arrived with their troops before the town of Wareham, and began to storm the outworks, whereupon the town agreed to surrender.
Corfe Castle was now almost the only place of strength between Exeter and London which still held out for the royal cause, and the constant valour of Lady Bankes, who defended it, is to be estimated not so much by her active enterprise and resistance in the hours of excitement and attack as by her long endurance through tedious weeks and months of anxiety, encompassed as she was by threats and dangers on every side. She had now a second winter to look forward to. All the neighbouring towns had become hostile, and the only encouragement and aid she could expect (her husband being absent, and her sons quite young) was that of a garrison to consist of soldiers brought from a distance, under the command of officers who were little, if at all, known to her.
Early in the winter the misfortune which she had least reason to anticipate befell her, for on December 28th, 1644, her husband, the Chief Justice, died at Oxford. On October 28th, 1645, more effective operations were taken against Corfe Castle. Colonel Bingham, Governor of Poole, had two regiments placed at his disposal for this purpose, and on December 16th further reinforcements were sent by General Fairfax.
During the whole course of the Civil War no expedition more gallant had occurred than that of January 29th by a young officer named Cromwell: whether this young Cromwell was related to the Protector is uncertain. Hearing of the distressed condition of a widowed lady shut up with her daughters in a closely-besieged castle, Cromwell was resolved to make an effort for their relief. Accompanied by a troop numbering 120 men, who shared the gallantry of their commander, he set out, probably from Oxford, and, marching with a degree of rapidity which anticipated all intelligence of his design, he passed through the quarters of Colonel Cooke undiscovered, and came to Wareham.