In those days--and indeed even to the present day--it was believed that one who was afflicted with dumbness, idiocy, or any natural disease which showed God's hand, was especially His agent. Dumb Dyott was looked upon as being the agent of divine vengeance, and the fact of its being St. Chad's Day strengthened the belief. Here is an extract from a very courtly letter written a few days afterwards by a young cavalier to Lady Dyer; in it the feeling that a miracle had been performed is clearly shown. The writer says: "We have had the honour in these parts to bring my Lord Brooke to a quiet condition. That enemy of our Church (March 2) was slain in his quarrel against our Church, by the God of our Church, with a shot out of the Cathedral, by a bullet made of Church lead, through the mouth which reviled our Church; and (if this be worth your reading) this Cathedral was dedicated to the memory of an old Saxon holy man (called Ceadda, commonly Chad); the blow of death came from St. Chad's Church upon St. Chad's Day. This, being a verity, is fit for a lady of rare worth." The incident is constantly referred to in contemporary literature, where the miracles claimed on behalf of the Royalist party are worthy of a better result. One more quotation will suffice. The celebrated preacher, Dr South, in his sermon on the text, "God hath loved the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Jacob," says: "Nor is that instance to be passed over of a commander in the Parliamentary army, who, coming to rifle and deface the cathedral at Lichfield, solemnly, at the head of his troops, begged God to show some remarkable token of His approbation or dislike of the work they were going about. Immediately after which, he was shot in the forehead by a deaf and dumb man; and this was on St. Chad's Day, the name of which saint that church bare, being dedicated to God in memory of the same: where we see that as he asked of God a sign, so God gave him one in the forehead, and that with such a mark as he is like to be known by all posterity." The house in which Lord Brooke was killed is in Dam Street, at a distance, it is said, of about 185 yards from the central spire of the cathedral; the late Mr Green caused the following inscription to be put up over the doorway:-- "_March 2, 1643._--Lord Brooke, a general of the Parliament forces preparing to besiege the Close of Lichfield, then garrisoned for King Charles the First, received his death wound on the spot beneath this inscription by a shot in the forehead from Mr Dyott, a gentleman who had placed himself on the battlements of the great steeple to annoy the besiegers."