ot, however, a Royalist who hoped to keep
his appointment by concealing his opinions from the Roundheads. At the
Salisbury assizes he made his charge to the grand jury an opportunity
for denouncing as guilty of high treason several peers who had taken up
arms against the king. For this Parliament denounced him as a traitor,
and declared his property forfeited.

No attempt was, however, made to seize Corfe Castle until May 1643,
when all the other castles in the neighbourhood having been captured,
it was the only one held by a Royalist. The Parliamentary army was
well aware that Sir John Bankes was not at the castle, and that Lady
Bankes had a very small force of servants to protect her, and
consequently it was, for some time, not considered necessary to capture
it. It was believed that Lady Bankes, shut up in her own castle, was
powerless to harm Cromwell's army. But, eventually, it was decided
that it was unwise not to interfere with a place that was notoriously a
Royalist possession, and it was decided to capture it.

The day fixed for the event was the first of May. On that day it was
the custom of the gentlemen of Corfe Castle to hunt a stag on the
island, and any one who liked to do so might participate in the sport.
The Roundheads decided to attend the hunt, seize the men from the
castle, and then capture the castle itself. But the arrival of an
exceptionally large number of people to attend the hunt aroused the
suspicions of the few Royalists, who quickly withdrew to the castle and
gave instructions that the gates were to be kept shut against anyone
seeking admission.

Having failed to capture the Royalists in the hunting-field, the rebels
came to the castle, and pretending that they were peaceable country
folk, craved permission to be allowed to see the interior. The
permission was refused, and some of the soldiers, angry at the failure
of the plot, forgot the part they were playing, and threatened to
return and gain admission by force. The officers, anxious not to
arouse Lady Bankes's suspicions, loudly reprimanded their men for
making foolish threats, and assured her ladyship that they had no
intention of doing as their men had vowed.

Lady Bankes did not, however, believe the rebel officers, and,
convinced that an attack would shortly be made on the castle, she
prepared to defend it. She had no Royalist troops whatever in the
castle, and her first step, therefore, was to call in a number of men