test
degree, and Lady Bankes would have kept the royal flag flying for many
months more, had there not been traitors in the castle. Colonel
Lawrence, who had gallantly assisted in the first defence of Corfe
Castle, was persuaded by the Governor of Wareham to help him to escape,
and to accompany him on his flight. The treachery of Lawrence was a
heavy blow for Lady Bankes, but she did not despair, believing it
impossible that any other of her friends would turn traitor.
Unfortunately she was mistaken. An officer, who had hitherto been
loyal and energetic as Colonel Lawrence, secretly sent word to the
officer commanding the besieging force that if protection were given
him he would deliver up the castle. The proposal was welcomed, and
after much secret correspondence it was settled that fifty men of the
Parliamentarian army should disguise themselves as Royalists, and be
admitted into the castle by the traitor.

This plan succeeded. The men were admitted without arousing any
suspicion, and not until the following morning did the garrison
discover that they had been betrayed. A brief fight ensued, but
resistance was useless, and with a sad heart Lady Bankes surrendered
the castle which she had so nobly defended for nearly three years.

The Parliamentarian officer who accepted the surrender was a humane
man, and took care that his troops should not fulfil their vow to put
to death every man, woman and child found in the castle. After the
place had been plundered, an attempt was made to destroy it, but the
walls were so massive that its destruction was impossible, and to-day
much of it is still standing.

Lady Bankes was not kept prisoner for long, and Oliver Cromwell
ordained that she should not be made to suffer for her loyalty and
bravery. Throughout the Commonwealth the heroine of Corfe Castle lived
peacefully, and did not die until Charles II. had been upon the throne
nearly a year. She died on April 11, 1661, and in Ruislip Church,
Middlesex, there is a monument, erected to her memory by her son, Sir
Ralph Bankes, on which is inscribed a record of her brave defence.

LADY HARRIET ACLAND.

A HEROINE OF THE AMERICAN WAR.

It was at the beginning of the year 1776 that Major Acland was ordered
to proceed with his regiment to America, to take part in the attempt to
quell the rising of the colonists. His wife, to whom he had been
married six years, at once asked to be allowed to accompany him, but he