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 Bedford Castle. 221 The works were stormed by four vigorous assaults. First the barbican was taken, with a loss of four or five of the assailants. Then entrance was effected into the outer ward. This was the work of the men of Dunstable, and was attended with severe loss. In this w^ard were stored most of the munitions of the place, — arms, horses and harness, cattle, bacon and live hogs. Much forage was here burned, with the houses and sheds in the ward. The miners next underworked the wall next the old tower, which wall fell. The resistance here appears to have been obstinate, many lives were lost upon the breach, and ten of the most forward assailants were tak^n and carried into the interior of the place. Finally, on the vigil of the Assumption, 14th August, about the hour of vespers, the miners having undermined the foundations of the old tower, fired the props. The w^alls split, the smoke rose, and, the place being no longer tenable, the garrison hoisted the royal banner, and surrendered, sending out De Braibroc with the wife of Falk, and the other women. Next morning the king took possession. William de Breaute and the garrison were put upon their trial, and he and about eighty of his men were hanged out of hand. Three were allowed to join the Templars in Palestine, and the castle chap- lain was delivered over to the archbishop as the spiritual power. It appears from the records that the remainder of the garrison escaped with fines and confiscations. The spoil was considerable, in treasure, provisions, and munitions of war. Henry left for Kemeston (Kemp- ston) on the i8th, but was again at Bedford on the 19th, and at Dunstable on the 26th of August. Even when flushed by success he seems not to have been severe upon those not actually implicated. Alice, widow of the executed William de Breaute, was allowed her dower-lands in Bedford and Cumberland. On the 19th and on the 22nd, Margaret, wife of Falk, was allowed for her subsistence the manors of Heyford and Sabridgeworth. Gilbert de Breaute also w^as allowed a manor ; and Falk, the author of all the mischief, had twenty marks allowed for his personal expenses on his way to exile. Immediately upon the surrender, Henry broke up the siege esta- blishment. Nine hundred quarrels, the residue of the 4,000, were returned to Northampton, and the sheriff of Beds is debited with the remaining iron, charcoal, &c., collected for the siege operations. The mangonels and heavy artillery were to be taken to pieces and returned to Northampton Castle. Various payments were also made and rewards given, chiefly out of the confiscated De Breaute lands. John de Standon, the king's miner from the Forest of Dean, had land granted him under St. Briavels. The castle itself was far too strong and too dangerous to be spared, and the orders for its destruction are very sweeping and specific. By an order of the 20th of August, five days after the surrender, the sheriff is ordered to level the banks, fill up the ditches, and make plane the surface of the outer ward. He is to reduce the mote or mound, and the walls of the inner w^ard by one-half their height, and