an archbishop to bid him come out of his castle and be punished. He
came out at last, and was fined ten thousand marks for the king and two
thousand for Alan de la Zouche. But Prince Edward was not done with him.
As Edward the First he held a Court of Assize to inquire into the
warrants by which the barons held their lands. De Warenne was asked for
his warrant for Reigate. He drew a rusty sword and struck it on the
council table. "By this instrument," he said, "do I hold my lands, and
by the same I intend to keep them." He kept them, but he had to amend
his plea into something a little less swaggering.

[Illustration: _A Reigate Byway._]

Of Reigate Castle not a stone remains. But under the great mound which
bore the keep you may see what local tradition has named the Baron's
caves, where, as the story goes, the Barons met before the signing of
Magna Charta. Martin Tupper, indeed, has written a whole chapter in
_Stephan Langton_ describing the interesting scene, though as a mere
matter of history it never took place. To begin with, the de Warenne of
the day was an adherent of King John, and not of the barons, and in the
next place the barons marching to Runemede never came near Reigate at
all. Mr. Tupper errs. But the passages and chambers hollowed out of the
yellow sandstone are interesting, and so are the rough carvings of heads
of horses which ornament the walls. Mr. Malden, the Surrey historian,
thinks the caves are merely sand-quarries, sand being valuable for
making mortar. It is pleasanter, though probably wholly incorrect, to
imagine them as dungeons, or homes of early man, or even cellars. The
gardener exhibits them with a candle, and in the dark they can be eerie
enough for cave-bears.

[Illustration: _Park Lane, near Reigate._]

Long after the de Warennes' reign was over, Reigate Castle saw more
fighting. We met the leaders on both sides at Kingston. It was nearly at
the end of the Parliamentary wars, and Lord Holland, commanding the
Royalist troops, conceived the idea of a rising near London. There was
to be a horse-race on Banstead Downs, to draw the people together, and
he was to lead them. Unhappily for his followers, he was a thoroughly
incompetent soldier. He hoisted his standard at Kingston, and marched
through Dorking to Reigate, where he held the castle and posted his
vedettes on Red Hill. Sir Michael Livesey, commanding some Kentish horse
for the Parliament, was ordered up from Sevenoaks to meet