nd some others were now red-hot for mischief, smarting from
their late ridiculous disaster.

"And what have we gotten by delay?" said Rigby; "we have wearied our
soldiers, wasted our powder, and emptied our purses; and this proud dame
still beats and baffles us, casting her gibes in our very teeth which we
deserve to lose for our pains."

"Take thine own course, then," said Egerton, mildly. "We are brethren,
serving one cause only; the which, being best served, is best won."

"Then be to-morrow ours," said Morgan, with his usual heat and
impatience. "We will burn them up like a heap of dry faggots. The house,
though well fenced against our shot, hath yet much inward building of
wood, and you shall see a pretty bonfire kindled by my bomb-shells--a
roaring blaze that shall ride on the welkin between here and Beeston
Castle!"

"Whilst thou art plying thy vocation we will scale the walls, and the
sword shall slay what the fire hath failed to devour," said Rigby.

"Fire and sword!" cried Egerton. "Ye are apt at a simile; but, methinks,
these be your own similitudes."

"They give their prisoners no quarter," said Morgan; "and why should we
sheath the sword when a weapon is at our own throat?"

"Why, doubtless they have more mouths to feed than they can conveniently
supply," said the more pacific personage. "Living men, to keep them so,
even though prisoners, require feeding."

"Our vengeance is sure, though tardy," said Rigby, rising in great
choler. "The blood of these martyrs crieth from the ground. To-morrow!"
and he breathed a bloody vow, looking fiercely up to heaven in the
daring and impious attitude of revenge.

"We had best give her ladyship another summons; which, if she refuse,
her blood be upon her own head!" Saying this, Egerton abruptly left the
council.

On the next morning, which was cold and drizzly, a "pragmatical" drummer
went out from the nearer trench, beating his drum for a parley, lest his
person should be dismissed without ceremony to the hungry kites.

Early had he been summoned to Rigby's lodging, where Ashton and Morgan
were contriving a furious epistle to the contumacious defenders of their
lives and substance. A summons, couched in no very measured terms, was
drawn up, to the purport that the fortress should be surrendered, and
all persons, goods, arms, and munitions therein, to the mercy of
parliament; and by the next day, before two o'clock, her ladyship to
return her answer, otherwi