names for the general. They gave it, and a
guard presently returned for Sir Charles Lucas,
Sir George Lisle, and Sir Bernard Gascoigne.
The butchers had come into the crowded
slaughter-house, and dragged out their selected
victims. The men were brought before Fairfax,
who (instigated as Clarendon thinks by the
inflexible Ireton) told them that after so long
and obstinate a defence, it was necessary, for
the example of others, that the peace of the
kingdom should be no more disturbed, and that
some military justice should be done;—those
three men must be presently put to death, and
they were instantly led into a yard contiguous,
where three files of musketeers were drawn up
ready for the dreadful duty.

Sir Bernard Gascoigne was a gentleman of
Florence, who had just English enough to
explain that he required only pen, ink, and paper,
so that he might write a letter ito the Grand
Duke to explain how he had lost his life, and
who should inherit his estates. Sir Charles
Lucas, the younger brother of a lord, and the
heir to his title, had been bred up in the Low
Countries, and had served in the cavalry.
"He was very brave," says Clarendon, "and
in the day of battle a gallant man to look upon
and follow, but at all other times and places
of a nature not to be lived with, of an ill
understanding, of a rough and proud nature,
which made him during the time of their being
in Colchester more intolerable than the siege,
or any fortune that threatened them. Yet they
all desired to accompany him in his death."
Lisle, compared with Lucas, was as summer to
winter. Though fierce to lead and certain to
be followed, he had "the softest and most gentle
nature imaginable, loved all, and beloved of all,
and without a capacity to have an enemy."

When the news of the cruel resolution reached
the prisoners, the cavaliers were deeply moved,
and Lord Capel instantly prevailed on an officer
of their guard to carry a letter to Fairfax,
entreating him either to forbear the execution,
or that all of them, being equally guilty, might
undergo the same sentence. The answer was
only an order to the officer to carry out his
order, reserving the Italian to the last. The
three cavaliers were led forth into the castle
courtyard. The men fired, and Lucas fell
dead. Seeing that, Sir George Lisle ran to the
body, embraced it, kissed the stern rugged
face, then stood up, looked at the soldiers'
faces, and thinking the men were too far off,
told them to come nearer. One of the
musqueteers exclaimed:

"I'll warrant you, sir, we hit you."

Lisle replied, smiling:

"Friends, I have been nearer you when you
have missed me."

Thereupon they all fired at him, and under
that shower of fiery lead he fell instantly without
uttering a word. Sir Barnard Gascoigne
had already stripped off his doublet, and was
expecting his turn, when the officer told him he
had orders to carry him back to his friends,
"for which mercy he cared not a whit." The
council of war had feared that if his life was
taken, their friends or children for several
generations would be in danger when travelling
in Italy.

When, what Clarendon calls, "the bloody
sacrifice," was completed, Fairfax and the chief
officers went to the town hall to visit the
surviving prisoners. The Puritan general treated
the Earl of Norwich and Lord Capel courteously,
apologised for the necessities of military
justice, but said that the lives of all the rest
were safe, and that they should be all well
treated and disposed of as the Parliament
directed. Lord Capel's high courage could not
endure this; he bade the Puritans finish their
work, and show them the same rigour; upon
which there were, says Clarendon, "two or
three sharp and bitter replies between him
and Ireton, which cost Capel his life a few
months after." While in the Tower Capel
made a daring escape, but was soon recaptured
and beheaded, together with the Duke of
Hamilton and the Earl of Holland, on a scaffold
before Westminster Hall.

The ruins of Colchester Castle still exist.
It is stated to have been built by Edward
the Elder. It stands on an eminence to the
north of the high street. The splayed loop-
holed windows and square flat buttresses show
Norman work. On the south side courses of
Roman tiles and herring-bone work intersect
the clay-stone walls: the labels and groins are
of Kentish rag or Purbeck stone, all dyed
with weather stains and furred with coloured
mosses. The western side, Mr. Walcott says,
measures one hundred and sixty-six feet, the
walls are thirty feet broad at the foundation,
and are flanked with north-east and north-west
towers. In the south-east bastion is a chapel,
now a militia armoury. In the keep were two
suites of apartments; the walls of the gateway
are all that is left of the approach. The great
south gate is still preserved, and there are still
visible the grooves for the portcullis and the
niche for the warder. There is an earth
rampart round the Roman wall on the north and
east sides. During the siege the choir of St.
Botolph's was destroyed by Fairfax's cannon.
St. Martin's Church and St. John's Abbey also
suffered greatly, and all the fortifications of
Colchester were subsequently dismantled. The
Balkon gate and other portions of the old wall
are full of round Roman tiles from old Camalodunum,
and they gleam out red from among
the glossy green ivy.

MR. LUFKIN AT A BULL FIGHT.

No—it weren't in our home paddock—neither
were it in the Four Acre, which the fences are
not all I could desire, and cattle, if restless, and
out of yummer with flies and what not, has
been know'd to work through. Don't let none
you be startled. Now, then. 'Twere in
Spain, actiwally in Spain! If hanybody had
ventered to tell me that I, James Lufkin,
should one day travel to Sarah Gosser, I should
have felt inclined for to punch his head, as