o the wondering council, that
Colonel Blake still held out, and that his spirited defence was
rousing and rallying the dispersed adherents of Parliament in those
parts.' After the siege was raised, the Royalists found that more men
of gentle blood had fallen under Blake's fire at Lyme, than in all the
other sieges and skirmishes in the western counties since the opening
of the war. The details of the siege are given with graphic effect by
Mr Dixon, and are only surpassed in interest by those connected with
Blake's subsequent and yet more celebrated defence of Taunton, to
which the third chapter of this biography is devoted.

The hero's fame had become a spell in the west: it was seen that he
rivalled Rupert in rapid and brilliant execution, and excelled him in
the caution and sagacity of his plans. He took Taunton--a place so
important at that juncture, as standing on and controlling the great
western highway--in July 1644, within a week of Cromwell's defeat of
Rupert at Marston Moor. All the vigour of the Royalists was brought
to bear on the captured town; Blake's defence of which is
justly characterised as abounding with deeds of individual
heroism--exhibiting in its master-mind a rare combination of civil and
military genius. The spectacle of an unwalled town, in an inland
district, with no single advantage of site, surrounded by powerful
castles and garrisons, and invested by an enemy brave, watchful,
numerous, and well provided with artillery, successfully resisting
storm, strait, and blockade for several months, thus paralysing the
king's power, and affording Cromwell time to remodel the army,
naturally arrested the attention of military writers at that time; and
French authors of this class bestowed on Taunton the name of the
modern Saguntum. The rage of the Royalists at this prolonged
resistance was extreme. Reckoning from the date when Blake first
seized the town, to that of Goring's final retreat, the defence lasted
exactly a year, and under circumstances of almost overwhelming
difficulty to the besieged party, who, in addition to the fatigue of
nightly watches, and the destruction of daily conflicts, suffered from
terrible scarcity of provisions. 'Not a day passed without a fire;
sometimes eight or ten houses were burning at the same moment; and in
the midst of all the fear, horror, and confusion incident to such
disasters, Blake and his little garrison had to meet the
storming-parties of an enemy brave, exa