The besiegers opposed their landing, but nevertheless they forced their way into the castle with the loss of only one boatman, while Lord Galmoy’s party lost several.
A sally was at once made from the fortress, and the besiegers were driven from their trenches with a loss of thirty or forty men, and the garrison captured the mock guns and took two suits of armour and several other valuable things.
Colonel Creichton’s son David, then a lad of eighteen, greatly distinguished himself during the conflict.
Although the castle was unprovided with cannon, great execution was done by the long fowling-pieces generally used for wild fowl on the lake.
Lord Galmoy was standing on a hill about an English mile distant from the castle, with a glass of wine in his hand, which he was about to drink to the confusion of the garrison, when a fowler from the fortress shattered the glass he was raising and killed the man beside him.
At this time a Captain MacGuire was prisoner at Crum, and Lord Galmoy proposed to Colonel Creichton to exchange Captain Dixey for him. This was agreed to, but when MacGuire was sent, Lord Galmoy, instead of returning Dixey, had him hanged with a cornet named Charleton.
Captain MacGuire was so disgusted with the treachery that he returned to Crum and threw up his commission in James’s army.
Lord Galmoy also enticed Colonel Creichton to a parley, and would have put him to death, too, had not Lord Mountcashel rescued the old man and conducted him safely back to his castle.
The following year Crum was again besieged, and Colonel Creichton sent an urgent message to Enniskillen to say that the besiegers had brought cannon with them. The next day he sent another message saying that Lieutenant-General MacCarthy had begun to batter the fortress.
This was Monday, and Colonel Wolseley returned answer that they should be relieved on Wednesday, and in the meantime he despatched orders for reinforcements to Ballyshannon.
A strong detachment set out, therefore, from Enniskillen to the castle’s relief, but upon their approach the enemy withdrew to Newtownbutler, where a great engagement was fought that shattered the cause of James II. in the north of Ireland. The garrison of Crum Castle greatly distinguished themselves in this engagement.