Page:Old Castles.djvu/50

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42
Carlisle Castle.

of wood and field between the Grampians and Land's-end with the fierce din of war. And in this war this city and castle had a full share of the general tumult of the times. The royalists held the city in 1644, of Marston Moor memory, and we find General Leslie besieging Sir Thomas Glenham, commander-in-chief for his majesty here the same year. More than seven months this siege lasted–from October, 1644, to June, 1645, a long winter through, and the calamity consequent was very great. "Flesh of horses, dogs, and other animals" was for some time the subsistance of the besieged. The old city, notwithstanding its bravery, must have been fearfully tried during all this time, and gaunt anxious faces must have passed through these old arches in those drear winter months; but the brave garrison capitulated to Leslie at last, almost death driven.

In 1648 the city again fell into the hands of the Royalists, having been taken by surprise by Sir Philip Musgrave, who after two months' occupation gave it up to the Duke of Hamilton, and by him it was garrisoned with Scots, Sir William Livingstone being appointed governor. This same year, on the first of October, and after the defeat of Hamilton and Langdale at Preston, by Cromwell, this city also quietly surrendered to him. During this year the city had been the scene of the most distressing suffering. The siege of Carlisle of 1644–5 is one of three of the most determined for the king's cause. Isaac Tullie, who was in the city the whole time, gives a very striking account of it. "The citizens' clothes hung on them," he says, "like those of men on gibbets; and one day