many dark deeds and strange events in English history. The De Lacys
built it in the early part of the thirteenth century. Its area was
seven acres. The wall of the castle court was high and flanked by
seven towers; a deep moat was cut on the western side, where was the
barbican and drawbridge. It had terrible dungeons, one a room
twenty-five feet square, without any entrance save a trap-door in the
floor of a turret. The castle passed, in 1310, by marriage to Thomas
Earl of Lancaster, who took part in the strife between Edward II and
his nobles, was captured, and in his own hall condemned to death. The
castle is always associated with the murder of Richard II, but
contemporary historians, Thomas of Walsingham and Gower the poet,
assert that he starved himself to death; others contend that his
starvation was not voluntary; while there are not wanting those who
say that he escaped to Scotland, lived there many years, and died in
peace in the castle of Stirling, an honoured guest of Robert III of
Scotland, in 1419. I have not seen the entries, but I am told in the
accounts of the Chamberlain of Scotland there are items for the
maintenance of the King for eleven years. But popular tales die hard,
and doubtless you will hear the groans and see the ghost of the
wronged Richard some moonlight night in the ruined keep of Pontefract.
He has many companion ghosts--the Earl of Salisbury, Richard Duke of
York, Anthony Wydeville, Earl Rivers and Grey his brother, and Sir
Thomas Vaughan, whose feet trod the way to the block, that was worn
hard by many victims. The dying days of the old castle made it
illustrious. It was besieged three times, taken and retaken, and saw
amazing scenes of gallantry and bravery. It held out until after the
death of the martyr king; it heard the proclamation of Charles II, but
at length was compelled to surrender, and "the strongest inland
garrison in the kingdom," as Oliver Cromwell termed it, was slighted
and made a ruin. Its sister fortress Knaresborough shared its fate.