noon
A proclamation by the King had to be read that day , and the ancient city had done all that could be done under many depressing conditions to receive the royal message with fitting honors . Flags that had lain long furled , floated from parapet and pediment , from window and balcony , from tower and turret . Doors were thrown open that had not always swung wide on their hinges , and open house was kept in many quarters . Towards noon a man mounted the steps in the Market Place , and read this first of the King 's proclamations and nailed it to the Cross . A company of red-coated soldiers were marched from the Castle Hill to the hill on the southwest , which had been thrown up six years before by the russet-coated soldiery who had attacked and seized the castle . Then they were marched back and disbanded for the night . When darkness fell over highway and byway , fires were lit down the middle of the narrow streets , and they sent up wide flakes of light that brightened the fronts of the half-timbered houses on either side , and shot a red glow into the sky , where the square walls of the Dungeon Tower stood out against dark rolling clouds .