w felt that this supreme sacrifice was
not required of them, and offered to treat with the Spaniards, who,
filled with generous admiration for the amazing courage that had been
shown by their adversaries, offered honourable terms of surrender. Sir
Richard, who had received several wounds, and who was at the point of
death, was carried on board the Spanish Admiral's ship, where his life
ebbed away within a few days. 'Here die I, Richard Grenville, with a
joyful and quiet mind, for that I have ended my life as a true soldier
ought to do that hath fought for his country, Queen, religion, and
honour: My soul willingly departing from this body, being behind the
lasting fame of having behaved as every valiant soldier is in his duty
bound to do.'

Sir Richard's famous grandson, Sir Bevil Grenville, was a brave soldier,
but less awe-inspiring; 'the most generally beloved man in Cornwall,'
according to Clarendon; and he adds that 'a brighter courage and a
gentler disposition were never married together.' When war was declared,
volunteers flocked to his standard, and in his first engagement, near
Liskeard, he inflicted defeat on the Parliamentary troops, and took
twelve hundred soldiers and all the guns.

At Stratton his achievements were even more brilliant, for his troops
began at a serious disadvantage. The enemy, with ample supplies and
ammunition, were encamped on the top of a hill; 'the Royalist troops,
less than half their number, short of ammunition, and so destitute of
provisions that the best officers had but a biscuit a day, lay at
Launceston.' Undaunted by these discouraging conditions, they determined
to attack, and having marched twenty miles, the soldiers arrived at the
foot of the hill, weary, footsore, and exhausted from want of food. From
dawn till late afternoon the storming-parties were again and again
repulsed, till their powder was almost gone; then they scaled the hill
in the face of cannon and muskets, to take the position by the force of
swords and pikes. Grenville's party was the first to struggle up to the
top, and it was almost immediately joined by the other columns, when the
enemy broke in confusion and fled.

Sir Bevil met his death at Lansdowne, when, with grim doggedness, the
Royalists were again climbing the heights in the face of the enemy's
fire. Very many fell, and he among them. 'Young John Grenville, a lad of
sixteen, sprang, it is said, into his father's saddle, and led the
charge, and t