They managed to escape from their cell by sawing through the door, at
night, and lowered themselves from the Tower walls to the ditch by means
of a rope which they had found, according to directions conveyed to them
from without, inside a loaf of bread. They succeeded in swimming the
Moat, but were unlucky enough to surprise a sentry, stationed near the
Middle Tower, who had heard the splash they made when leaving the rope
and jumping into the water. On their coming to the opposite bank they
were re-taken, cast back into the prison, and shortly afterwards hanged
at Tyburn. The Lieutenant of the Tower was heavily fined for “allowing
the escape,” poor man! A few years afterwards, Lord Capel, made captive
at the surrender of Colchester Castle, broke prison by having had tools
and a rope secretly conveyed to him with instructions as to which part
of the Moat he should find most shallow. With deliberation he performed
all that was necessary to get himself outside the walls, but he found
the depth of the ditch exceed his expectations. Attempting to wade
across, he was nearly dragged under water by the weight of mud that
clogged his feet, and was, at one point in his perilous progress through
the water, about to call loudly for help lest he should be unable to
continue the exertion necessary and so be drowned. However, cheered by
friends waiting under cover of bushes on the Tower Hill bank, he came at
last to firm ground. He was carried to rooms in the Temple, and from
thence conveyed, some days later, to Lambeth. But the boatman who had
carried the fugitive and his friends from the Temple Stairs, guessing
who his passenger was, raised an alarm. Capel was discovered, put again
in the Tower, and beheaded in March, 1649, beside Westminster Hall. The
grim-looking Byward Tower is said to have been so named from the fact
that the by-word, or password, had to be given at its gateway before
admittance could be gained even to the outer ward of the fortress. On
that side of it nearest the river, a postern gateway leads to a small
drawbridge across the ditch. This gave access to the royal landing-place
on the wharf, immediately opposite, and in this way privileged persons
were able to enter the Tower without attention to those formalities
necessary to gain entry to the buildings in the ordinary way. In the
Byward Tower, to the right, under the archway, is the Warders’ Parlour,
a finely-vaulted room, and outside its doorway we meet one or two of
those Yeomen Warders, whose picturesque uniform, so closely associated
with the Tower, was designed by Holbein the painter, and dates from
Tudor days. These Yeomen Warders are sworn in as special constables,
whose duties lie within the jurisdiction of the Tower, and they take
rank with sergeant-majors in the army. When State trials were held in
Westminster Hall the Yeoman Gaoler escorted the prisoner to and from the
Tower, carrying the processional axe, still preserved in the King’s
House here.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account