tle against the Red King: the second in 1147, when the place was
held for the Empress Matilda against King Stephen; and in both of these
cases the defenders were compelled by famine to surrender. The third
important attack was that of 1264, following the battle of Lewes, when
Simon de Montfort and the Barons sought in vain to reduce a garrison of
obstinate Royalists. It was during this particular siege that the
larger gap in the original Roman wall was initiated. The fourth and
last storming happened during the Wars of the Roses, when Lady Pelham,
a stanch supporter of the Lancastrian cause, successfully held out
against a force of local followers of Richard of York.

After that the glory of the place departed, and it became a State
prison, wherein were incarcerated such illustrious personages as
Edward, Duke of York; James the First of Scotland; and Queen Joan of
Navarre, wife of Henry the Fourth. From the days of the seventh Henry
onwards it gradually fell into decay; and its present dilapidated
condition is due not so much to the violence of the sieges as to the
habit of the local gentry of using the remains as a handy quarry for
house-building purposes. For the presence of any remains at all our
thanks are due to that much-reviled thing the Spanish Armada. In the
year previous to the sailing of the fleet, orders were given for the
complete restoration or total demolition of the castle. Happily, in
the general confusion of the time, the instructions seem to have been
forgotten. Pevensey now is one of the most picturesque spots in the
south of England. The knoll on which it stands is sufficiently high to
give the castle a dignified appearance, as it rises up out of the
encompassing marshes; and yet there is none of that grim, forbidding
aspect generally so noticeable about castles perched on an eminence.
Rather is there about these ivy-mantled walls an atmosphere of sunlit
serenity quite out of keeping with the story of the place. Around the
little hill still stretch those amazing ancient Roman walls, with but
two considerable breaches. These walls for the most part fail to get
the attention they deserve. Visitors enter the little western gate and
pass across the meadow--once the outer ward--and so come to the
mediaeval castle; but the outer walls are nearly a thousand years older
and of transcendent interest. What magnificent masons those old Romans
were! And what a secret they must have possessed for th