Inactivity, however temporary, was ill suited to the temperament of the earl, and on receiving the news that the solitary piece of artillery belonging to the luckless Spanish vessel had been appropriated by the parliamentary officials before he appeared upon the scene, and transferred to their stronghold at Lancaster, he conceived the idea of reducing the ancient castle on the Lune, and so taking vengeance on those who had anticipated him in the Wyre affair, as well as removing a formidable obstacle to the success of the royal arms. Before entering on an undertaking of such importance it was necessary that his small body of troops should be materially increased, and after exhausting the districts south of the Ribble, he crossed it, in search of recruits amongst the yeomanry and peasantry of the Fylde. The earl lodged his soldiers in and about Kirkham, and fixed his own quarters at Lytham Hall. Dreadful stories are related by the old historian, from whose work we have already quoted, of the doings of the troops for the short time they remained in the neighbourhood, but it is only fair to state that their rapacity was directed exclusively against the property of those whose sympathies were with their opponents, whose houses and farms they plundered most mercilessly, driving off their horses, and carrying away ornaments, bedding, and everything which could either be turned to immediate use or offered a prospect of future gain. Warrants were issued on the first day of their arrival, from the head quarters at Lytham, over the whole of our section, calling upon every male above sixteen years of age and under sixty, “upon payne of death to appear before his Honor at Kirkham the next morning by eight of the clock, in their best weapons, to attend the King’s service.”[39] The officers to whom fell the task of heralding the mandate over the large area in the brief interval allowed, fulfilled their duties with energy, and a goodly company responded to the arbitrary summons of the commander. After having seen that the fresh levies were as suitably equipped for warfare as means would permit, the earl appointed John Hoole, of Singleton, and John Ambrose, of Wood Plumpton, as captains over them, and gave the order to march. On reaching Lancaster Lord Derby summoned the mayor and burgesses to surrender the town and castle into his hands, to which the chief magistrate replied that the inhabitants had already been deprived of their arms and were unresisting, but that the fortress, now garrisoned by parliamentary troops, was out of his keeping, an answer so far unsatisfactory to the besieger that he set fire to the buildings, about one hundred and seventy of which were destroyed, and inflicted other injury on the place. Colonel Ashton, of Middleton, who had been sent to relieve the castle, arrived too late, when the earl was some distance on his return towards Preston, from which town he dislodged the enemy. A little later the tide of fortune turned against