to return and exert themselves. It is not apparent when the different commanders arrived or were appointed; but it seems that on the completion of the works Colonel Thomas Ceeley was raised to the command, with the title of governor. Bury, the treasurer, charges £10 for ammunition delivered into Lyme, December 14, 1642.

Immediately after the governor had put Lyme in a state of defence he commenced operations. The garrison intimidated those in the neighbourhood who were well affected to the Royal cause, and excited the friends of the Parliament to join them in "beating up the enemy's quarters," which they repeatedly did, with various success. No sooner were the larger bodies of the king's forces removed to a distance from this part, than the troops under the command of Colonel Ceeley traversed the country round, and at different times made excursions to the very gates of Exeter, and into some parts of Somersetshire.

January 18th, 1643, intelligence was brought that a party went from Lyme to fix a garrison at Lady Drake's house, in Dorset, being sent for by her: Lord Paulet marched thither and took it before the fortifications were finished. The rebels had burnt down a fair house of Mr. Tubervil's, and the king's forces that of Sir Walter Erle, whither several rebels were retired.*

March 9, intelligence came that Sir William Waller had sent Colonel Ware, his deputy, to raise men in Dor

* Mercurius Aulieus.

set, and got several officers and men from Lyme; but Lord Paulet, Sir John Berkley, Sir Richard Cholmley, Colonel Bluet, &c., attacked them at Hemiock Castle, took the town, forced the rebels into the castle, who surrendered it next morning, in which were two hundred prisoners, ten officers, and eighty horse.*

Whitechurch Castle, which remained in the king's hands, was a great check on the garrison of Lyme. Captain Thomas Pyne, with a party from thence, took it, March 12, with fifty prisoners and two pieces of ordnance.†

March 15th, intelligence came that Captain Ware, with a party from Lyme, was surprised, and most of his men taken prisoners and carried to Culliton. Captain Thomas Pyne went, with a party of the garrison, the same night, surprised them, took the colonel, several inferior officers, sixty soldiers, many horse, arms, &c.‡

About March 16, intelligence came that this garrison had taken Bridport. Soon after Burley House, a mile from Bridport [perhaps Chideock], was taken by Captain Pyne and a party of horse and dragoons, and in it fifty prisoners and two pieces of ordnance. He garrisoned it with two hundred men, who compelled contributions from Bridport, and eleven parishes adjacent, which before had been paid by them to the king.†

From this date Lyme took a conspicuous part in the

* Mercurius Aulicus. Whitlock. Whitlock, Vicars, Parl.Chron.

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proceedings of the west. The king had hopes of taking it by means of an expedition then advancing towards this part of the country.

August 14, 1643, there was a regiment, consisting of ten companies, commanded by the governor. About this time, after the reduction of Dorchester, Prince Maurice summoned Lyme, which not being done while their fears were fresh, they returned so peremptory a refusal that he left it, and marched to Exeter.*

Besides the numerous captains, Pyne, Davis, Erle, Gaitch, Marsh, Ware, &c., the governor was assisted by the celebrated Admiral Blake, who fought with the Lyme garrison as lieutenant-colonel, and eminently distinguished himself.

Nothing of particular consequence transpired at Lyme during the latter part of the year, as the garrison were undisputed masters of the neighbourhood. At the commencement of the year 1644 the king was determined upon subduing the town, which, situated by nature so as to be scarcely capable of defence, contained at that time so many resolute spirits that it engaged the king to send a numerous body of men, and a complete train of artillery, under the command of Prince Maurice, brother of Prince Rupert, to besiege it. Prince Maurice and his forces were quartered at Beaminster April 14; but a fire breaking out, which destroyed the greater part of the town, he

* Clarendon, vol. 2, 336.

advanced towards Lyme, and commenced a siege the most remarkable of any that occurred during that unhappy period. He was assisted in his attempt upon Lyme by Sir John Stowel, Sir John Berkley, Lord Paulet, Colonel Francis Bluet, and other brave officers, with an army principally composed of Irishmen. The resistance of the townsmen was most obstinate: their courage was increased by the vehement harangues and violent rhapsodies of twenty-five puritanical preachers, as the Mercurius Aulicus relates, who confidently assured eternal salvation to those who should fall in the contest. The townsmen, aware of the approaching struggle, awaited the commencement of hostilities with firmness. Like the followers of Mahomet, they learned to look on death with diminished terror, the more they became inflamed by the powerful vapours of enthusiasm. The women, in the heat of conflict, while the work of destruction went rapidly on before their eyes, regardless of danger, carried ammunition to the soldiers, and frequently assisted in keeping the lines. Disguised by means of red cloaks and men's hats, they shewed themselves on the works, when the soldiers were worn out with fatigue. The besiegers, deceived by this artifice, lay close in their batteries, when otherwise they would have stormed and taken the principal ones in the town's defence. Their determined zeal and resolute perseverance during the severest privations have caused a comparison to be drawn between them and the celebrated Joan d'Arc. Their numerous feats are recorded by James Strong, in his "Joanereidos, or Feminine Valour eminently discovered in West Country Women, at the Siege of Lyme, 1644."

One woman is said to have fired at one attack sixteen muskets. A maid, who had one of her hands cut off in the confusion attending the fight, being asked what course she would now take to live,-" Truly," said she, "I am glad with all my heart that I had a hand to lose for Jesus Christ, for whose cause I am willing to lose not only my other hand, but my life also." Vicars, who records this, exclaims," A sweet and most saint-like speech indeed! Such admirable courage it pleased the Lord to infuse into the hearts of all the inhabitants during all the time of that long and sharp siege."

On the arrival of the Prince's forces a trumpeter summoned the townsmen to surrender; to which they returned, as the Mercurius Aulicus states, a very insolent answer, and declared they would grant no quarter to any Irish or Cornish.

The subjoined account of the siege of Lyme is from a MS. found in White Lackington House, 1786:

"An account of the most remarkable passings that happened at the streight siege of Lyme Regis by Prince Maurice, from the time of his sitting down before it, being the 20th of April, in the twentieth year of King Charles, unto the 16th of June following, 1644:—

"In the aforesaid 20th of April the enemy appeared on a certain hill, called Uplyme-hill, about two miles distant from Lyme-Regis, near the midway between the enemy's quarters at Axminster and Lyme, where the sol