Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/88

74 drove them back to the walls of their city, which she besieged in person, and took in the year 351, B. C. She treated the inhabitants with rigour, and caused two statues to be erected, one of the city of Rhodes habited like a slave, and the other of herself marking it with a hot iron. This monument remained a long time, to the shame of the vanquished, because it was a religious tenet with them, never to destroy even the trophies of their enemies; but they afterwards built walls round it to screen it from public view.

Castle being summoned, May 2, 1643, by the parliamentary forces under Sir Edward Hungerford, to surrender, the Lady Arundel, who commanded it in the absence of her husband, refused to deliver it up, alledging, that she had orders from her lord to keep it, and those orders she was determined to obey. On this reply, the cannon were drawn up, and the battery commenced, which continued from Wednesday till the following Monday. The castle contained but twenty-five fighting men. During the siege two mines were sprung, by the explosion of which, every room in the fortress was shaken and endangered. The besiegers offered, more than once, to give quarter to the women and children, on condition that the besieged should surrender their arms at discretion. But the ladies of the family disdained to sacrifice their brave friends and faithful servants to their own safety; and when the latter were almost worn out by watching, they, with their female servants, assisted in loading the  quets,