Most of the conquering forces remained in Preston and began to strengthen its fortifications, and erected a strong sconce upon the marsh outside Preston, so as to command the fords over the Ribble. To keep alive the enthusiasm of the soldiers, as well as to disarm a dangerous foe, an attack on Hoghton Tower was decided on, and with this object three companies were despatched from Preston on February 14. This fine specimen of a baronial residence was well situated and fortified; it was from its tower that Sir Gilbert Hoghton was wont to light his beacon to call musters of the friends of the King; on its walls were mounted "three great pieces of ordnance." Sir Gilbert, as we have already seen, having escaped from Preston and gone to Wigan, and his wife being a prisoner, it is not to be wondered at that the little garrison at the Tower should be disheartened, and after a short parley give up the place. The soldiers at once took possession, and whilst they were searching for arms and powder the place was blown up, and Captain Starkey and some threescore of his men were killed. This explosion was at the time put down as being caused by an act of treachery on the part of Sir Gilbert's soldiers, but subsequently it appears to have been admitted that it was due to the carelessness of the victorious forces. The author of "Lancashire's Valley of Achor" distinctly states that it was "fired by their neglected matches, or by that great souldier's idoll, tobacco;" and he further adds that they were "burdened with the weight of their swearing, drunkennesse, plundering and wilfull waste at Preston." Within a few days of the taking of Hoghton Tower, troops were sent to reconnoitre Lancaster, where, finding the inhabitants either unprepared to resist or more or less in sympathy with them, they at once attacked the castle and took it, and thereupon released all the prisoners they found there, whether they were in gaol for felony or debt. At the castle were Roger Kirby, M.P. for the county, and Sir John Girlington, who appears to have escaped on finding that the castle could hold out no longer.