Note 30 — THE CASTLE OF CHEPSTOW, Monmouthshire.

During the siege, as the tradition runs, a barge lay at anchor immediately under this window, by means of which, if driven to extremity, the governor at least, and part of the garrison—desperate as the attempt must have been—might be enabled to make their escape. This becoming an object of suspicion, a soldier of the republican army volunteered to deprive the governor of this last resource. Throwing himself at midnight into the river, he swam to the barge, and there with a knife, which he had carried in his teeth for that purpose, severed the cable, sent the boat adrift, and then swam back to his comrades in triumph.