Meanwhile the sorties of the garrison of Latham
continued ; and the cannon began to batter the walls
of the House, but, thanks to the nature of the ground,
not very effectually.
• Halsall's Sie£e of Latham House.
92 THE LADY OF LATHAM.
The garrison were anxiously watching the erection
of a mortar that the enemy was placing on a mound, at
the distance of half a gun-shot. The first shots passed
over the house, to the great relief of the besieged, who
had been furnished by the Countess with the wet hides
of newly-killed animals with which to extinguish any
fire that might occur.
Four days of prayer and pious exercises interrupted
the operations of the siege ; " four days of sleep,"
says the historian of Latham, incredulous as to the
devotion of Colonel Rigby. At the end of that
time the garrison determined to awaken the besiegers
by a furious sortie, in which they spiked several of
their cannon, and took a great number of prisonere,
whom the Countess, proud of having scarcely any men
left in the hands of the enemy, would have consented
to release in exchange for some of the king's friends
detained at Manchester, Preston, and Lancaster.
Colonel Rigby promised this : but failed to fulfil his
engagement, " it suiting well their religion," says the
narrator of the siege, " neither to observe faith with God
nor with men." And then followed at Latham a
melancholy massacre of prisoners whom tlie Countess
could neither keep nor set free.
