Amongst those who witnessed the entrance of the insurgent army into the town, were the prisoners in the castle, who had contrived to get up on the leads of the building, and saluted their deliverers, as they styled them, with loud cheers. Several of these unlucky individuals had been confined for political offences, and as most of them were Jacobites, they confidently calculated upon liberation. Amongst them was the celebrated Tom Syddall, a blacksmith of Manchester, who had headed the mob at the time of the Sacheverel riots, and assisted in pulling down the Presbyterian meeting-houses in that town. For these offences the “Mob Captain,” as he was styled, was placed in the pillory, and imprisoned in Lancaster Castle. Tom Syddall, we may mention, had a son quite as ardent a Jacobite as himself, whose exploits during the rebellion of 1745 have been recounted in another work. A consultation was held by General Forster with Lord Derwentwater and the other leaders as to the propriety of releasing the debtors as well as the Crown prisoners in the castle, when it was decided that the former only should be set free. Accordingly, Colonel Oxburgh, who by this time had returned from his unsuccessful visit to Hornby Castle, was directed to order their immediate discharge, and for this purpose went up to the castle, without a guard, and only accompanied by Mr. Patten, the chaplain of the force. On entering by the portal of the Gateway Tower, above which was an effigy of John of Gaunt, they were respectfully received by an officer, to whom Colonel Oxburgh gave General Forster's order for the liberation of the Crown prisoners, and while the colonel and the chaplain walked on into the spacious castle-yard, the order was taken to the governor. Ere many minutes had elapsed, loud shouts, that made the old towers ring, announced that the order had been complied with, and soon afterwards some thirty individuals, most of them very shabbily attired, rushed tumultuously into the court, and, gathering round Colonel Oxburgh, shouted “Long live King James the Third!” Foremost among them was a short, strongly built man, with a plain, honest countenance, marked by a bold, determined expression, who looked like what he had been--a blacksmith. “Are you not Tom Syddall?” inquired Colonel Oxburgh. The man replied in the affirmative, whereupon the colonel shook hands with him, as did the chaplain, and both expressed their satisfaction at being instrumental in setting him and his fellow-prisoners at liberty. “You have all been imprisoned for your attachment to your rightful sovereign,” said Colonel Oxburgh, “and it is our duty to liberate you. As to you, Syddall,” he added, “I know you to be a brave fellow, and I expect you will join us.” “Such is my design, colonel,” he replied. “And what is more, I can bring all these my friends with me. Have I said too much?” he added, appealing to them. “No! no!” they responded unanimously. “We will all join.”