Wessex . fter the forty-eighth day that one of the officers of thegarrison, a Lieutenant-Colonel Pitman, decided to playthe traitor, letting the enemy without know that, ifhe might have protection, he would deliver the placeto the Parliament. This offer was thankfully acceptedby Colonel Bingham, who could not have felt at allcertain of even ultimately reducing the place. Pitmans plan was to introduce some of the besiegersinto the castle in the guise of friends, and he thusproposed to Colonel Anketil, the governor, that he(Pitman) should fetch a hundred men out of Somerset-shire to reinforce th
Wessex . fter the forty-eighth day that one of the officers of thegarrison, a Lieutenant-Colonel Pitman, decided to playthe traitor, letting the enemy without know that, ifhe might have protection, he would deliver the placeto the Parliament. This offer was thankfully acceptedby Colonel Bingham, who could not have felt at allcertain of even ultimately reducing the place. Pitmans plan was to introduce some of the besiegersinto the castle in the guise of friends, and he thusproposed to Colonel Anketil, the governor, that he(Pitman) should fetch a hundred men out of Somerset-shire to reinforce the garrison. To enable him tocarry out this act of treachery, he pretended to thegovernor that he would get leave to pass the enemysentrenchments under the pretence of procuring anexchange for his brother, then a prisoner within theParliamentary lines, for one of the enemys officerswho had been captured and was a prisoner in the 198 I I CORFE CASTLEThe Corvesgate Castle of The Hand of Ethelherta • » \». Betrayal by Pitman castle. Colonel Ankctil fell into the trap, doubtlessdesiring above all things that the garrison, wearied outby much watching and anxiety, should be reinforced insome such way as Pitman suggested. The traitor left the castle, and, instead of going intoSomersetshire, returned shortly afterwards with a partywhich he pretended were Royalists, but who in factwere Parliamentarian soldiers drawn out of the Wey-mouth garrison. Pitman led them under cover of night to the gateagreed upon for their entrance. Colonel Anketil wasthere to receive them, and when some fifty of thesemen had entered the castle he appears to have becomealarmed, and ordered the gate to be shut, saying that fiftywere as many as he wanted. Pitman expostulated withhim, and urged that he should admit the rest, who hadtravelled so far at the risk of their lives, and who, ifkept without the castle, would run the risk of captureby the enemy. Meantime those who had alreadyentered speedily possessed t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1906
