Page 4 of Memoirs of a Cavalier

  THE SECOND PART

  I confess, when I went into arms at the beginning of this war, I nevertroubled myself to examine sides: I was glad to hear the drums beatfor soldiers, as if I had been a mere Swiss, that had not cared whichside went up or down, so I had my pay. I went as eagerly and blindlyabout my business, as the meanest wretch that 'listed in the army; norhad I the least compassionate thought for the miseries of my nativecountry, till after the fight at Edgehill. I had known as much, andperhaps more than most in the army, what it was to have an enemyranging in the bowels of a kingdom; I had seen the most flourishingprovinces of Germany reduced to perfect deserts, and the voraciousCrabats, with inhuman barbarity, quenching the fires of the plunderedvillages with the blood of the inhabitants. Whether this had hardenedme against the natural tenderness which I afterwards found return uponme, or not, I cannot tell; but I reflected upon myself afterwards witha great deal of trouble, for the unconcernedness of my temper at theapproaching ruin of my native country.

  I was in the first army at York, as I have already noted, and, I mustconfess, had the least diversion there that ever I found in an army inmy life. For when I was in Germany with the King of Sweden, we usedto see the king with the general officers every morning on horsebackviewing his men, his artillery, his horses, and always something goingforward. Here we saw nothing but courtiers and clergymen, bishops andparsons, as busy as if the direction of the war had been in them. Theking was seldom seen among us, and never without some of them alwaysabout him.

  Those few of us that had seen the wars, and would have made a shortend of this for him, began to be very uneasy; and particularly acertain nobleman took the freedom to tell the king that the clergywould certainly ruin the expedition. The case was this: he wouldhave had the king have immediately marched into Scotland, and put thematter to the trial of a battle; and he urged it every day. And theking finding his reasons very good, would often be of his opinion; butnext morning he would be of another mind.

  This gentleman was a man of conduct enough, and of unquestionedcourage, and afterwards lost his life for the king. He saw we had anarmy of young stout fellows numerous enough; and though they had notyet seen much service, he was for bringing them to action, that theScots might not have time to strengthen themselves, nor they havetime by idleness and sotting, the bane of soldiers, to make themselvesunfit for anything.

  I was one morning in company with this gentleman; and as he was a warmman, and eager in his discourse, "A pox of these priests," says he,"'tis for them the king has raised this army, and put his friends to avast charge; and now we are come, they won't let us fight."

  But I was afterwards convinced the clergy saw further into the matterthan we did. They saw the Scots had a better army than we had--boldand ready, commanded by brave officers--and they foresaw that if wefought we should be beaten, and if beaten, they were undone. And 'twasvery true, we had all been ruined if we had engaged.

  It is true when we came to the pacification which followed, I confessI was of the same mind the gentleman had been of; for we had betterhave fought and been beaten than have made so dishonourable a treatywithout striking a stroke. This pacification seems to me to have laidthe scheme of all the blood and confusion which followed in the CivilWar. For whatever the king and his friends might pretend to do bytalking big, the Scots saw he was to be bullied into anything, andthat when it came to the push the courtiers never cared to bring it toblows.

  I have little or nothing to say as to action in this mock expedition.The king was persuaded at last to march to Berwick; and, as I havesaid already, a party of horse went out to learn news of the Scots,and as soon as they saw them, ran away from them bravely.

  This made the Scots so insolent that, whereas before they lay encampedbehind a river, and never showed themselves, in a sort of modestdeference to their king, which was the pretence of not beingaggressors or invaders, only arming in their own defence, now, havingbeen invaded by the English troops entering Scotland, they had whatthey wanted. And to show it was not fear that retained them before,but policy, now they came up in parties to our very gates, braving andfacing us every day.

  I had, with more curiosity than discretion, put myself as a volunteerat the head of one of our parties of horse, under my Lord Holland,when they went out to discover the enemy; they went, they said, to seewhat the Scots were a-doing.

  We had not marched far, but our scouts brought word they haddiscovered some horse, but could not come up to them, because a riverparted them. At the heels of these came another party of our men uponthe spur to us, and said the enemy was behind, which might be true foraught we knew; but it was so far behind that nobody could see them,and yet the country was plain and open for above a mile before us.Hereupon we made a halt, and, indeed, I was afraid it would have beenan odd sort of a halt, for our men began to look one upon another,as they do in like cases, when they are going to break; and when thescouts came galloping in the men were in such disorder, that had butone man broke away, I am satisfied they had all run for it.

  I found my Lord Holland did not perceive it; but after the firstsurprise was a little over I told my lord what I had observed, andthat unless some course was immediately taken they would all run atthe first sight of the enemy. I found he was much concerned at it, andbegan to consult what course to take to prevent it. I confess 'tis ahard question how to make men stand and face an enemy, when fear haspossessed their minds with an inclination to run away. But I'll givethat honour to the memory of that noble gentleman, who, though hisexperience in matters of war was small, having never been in muchservice, yet his courage made amends for it; for I daresay he wouldnot have turned his horse from an army of enemies, nor have saved hislife at the price of running away for it.

  My lord soon saw, as well as I, the fright the men were in, after Ihad given him a hint of it; and to encourage them, rode through theirranks and spoke cheerfully to them, and used what arguments he thoughtproper to settle their minds. I remembered a saying which I heard oldMarshal Gustavus Horn speak in Germany, "If you find your men falter,or in doubt, never suffer them to halt, but keep them advancing; forwhile they are going forward, it keeps up their courage."

  As soon as I could get opportunity to speak to him, I gave him thisas my opinion. "That's very well," says my lord, "but I am studying,"says he, "to post them so as that they can't run if they would; and ifthey stand but once to face the enemy, I don't fear them afterwards."

  While we were discoursing thus, word was brought that several partiesof the enemies were seen on the farther side of the river, upon whichmy lord gave the word to march; and as we were marching on, my lordcalls out a lieutenant who had been an old soldier, with only fivetroopers whom he had most confidence in, and having given him hislesson, he sends him away. In a quarter of an hour one of thefive troopers comes back galloping and hallooing, and tells us hislieutenant had, with his small party, beaten a party of twenty of theenemy's horse over the river, and had secured the pass, and desired mylord would march up to him immediately.

  Tis a strange thing that men's spirits should be subjected to suchsudden changes, and capable of so much alteration from shadows ofthings. They were for running before they saw the enemy, now they arein haste to be led on, and but that in raw men we are obliged to bearwith anything, the disorder in both was intolerable.

  The story was a premeditated sham, and not a word of truth in it,invented to raise their spirits, and cheat them out of their cowardlyphlegmatic apprehensions, and my lord had his end in it; for theywere all on fire to fall on. And I am persuaded, had they been ledimmediately into a battle begun to their hands, they would have laidabout them like furies; for there is nothing like victory to flush ayoung soldier. Thus, while the humour was high, and the fermentationlasted, away we marched, and, passing one of their great commons,which they call moors, we came to the river, as he called it, whereour lieutenant was posted with his four men; 'twas a little brookfordable with ease, and, leaving a guard at the pass, we advanced tothe top o
f a small ascent, from whence we had a fair view of the Scotsarmy, as they lay behind another river larger than the former.

  Our men were posted well enough, behind a small enclosure, with anarrow lane in their front. And my lord had caused his dragoons to beplaced in the front to line the hedges; and in this posture he stoodviewing the enemy at a distance. The Scots, who had some intelligenceof our coming, drew out three small parties, and sent them bydifferent ways to observe our number; and, forming a fourth party,which I guessed to be about 600 horse, advanced to the top of theplain, and drew up to face us, but never offered to attack us.

  One of the small parties, making about 100 men, one third foot,passes upon our flank in view, but out of reach; and, as they marched,shouted at us, which our men, better pleased with that work than withfighting, readily enough answered, and would fain have fired at themfor the pleasure of making a noise, for they were too far off to hitthem.

  I observed that these parties had always some foot with them; and yetif the horse galloped, or pushed on ever so forward, the foot were asforward as they, which was an extraordinary advantage.

  Gustavus Adolphus, that king of soldiers, was the first that I haveever observed found the advantage of mixing small bodies of musketeersamong his horse; and, had he had such nimble strong fellows as these,he would have prized them above all the rest of his men. These werethose they call Highlanders. They would run on foot with their armsand all their accoutrements, and keep very good order too, and yetkeep pace with the horse, let them go at what rate they would. When Isaw the foot thus interlined among the horse, together with the way ofordering their flying parties, it presently occurred to my mind thathere was some of our old Scots come home out of Germany that had theordering of matters, and if so, I knew we were not a match for them.

  Thus we stood facing the enemy till our scouts brought us word thewhole Scots army was in motion, and in full march to attack us; and,though it was not true, and the fear of our men doubled every object,yet 'twas thought convenient to make our retreat. The whole matter wasthat the scouts having informed them what they could of our strength,the 600 were ordered to march towards us, and three regiments of footwere drawn out to support the horse.

  I know not whether they would have ventured to attack us, at leastbefore their foot had come up; but whether they would have put it tothe hazard or no, we were resolved not to hazard the trial, so wedrew down to the pass. And, as retreating looks something like runningaway, especially when an enemy is at hand, our men had much ado tomake their retreat pass for a march, and not a flight; and, by theiroften looking behind them, anybody might know what they would havedone if they had been pressed.

  I confess, I was heartily ashamed when the Scots, coming up to theplace where we had been posted, stood and shouted at us. I would havepersuaded my lord to have charged them, and he would have done it withall his heart, but he saw it was not practicable; so we stood at gazewith them above two hours, by which time their foot were come up tothem, and yet they did not offer to attack us. I never was so ashamedof myself in my life; we were all dispirited. The Scots gentlemenwould come out single, within shot of our post, which in a time of waris always accounted a challenge to any single gentleman, to come outand exchange a pistol with them, and nobody would stir; at last ourold lieutenant rides out to meet a Scotchman that came pickeering onhis quarter. This lieutenant was a brave and a strong fellow, had beena soldier in the Low Countries; and though he was not of any quality,only a mere soldier, had his preferment for his conduct. He gallopsbravely up to his adversary, and exchanging their pistols, thelieutenant's horse happened to be killed. The Scotchman verygenerously dismounts, and engages him with his sword, and fairlymasters him, and carries him away prisoner; and I think this horse wasall the blood was shed in that war.

  The lieutenant's name thus conquered was English, and as he was a verystout old soldier, the disgrace of it broke his heart. The Scotchman,indeed, used him very generously; for he treated him in the camp verycourteously, gave him another horse, and set him at liberty, gratis.But the man laid it so to heart, that he never would appear in thearmy, but went home to his own country and died.

  I had enough of party-making, and was quite sick with indignation atthe cowardice of the men; and my lord was in as great a fret as I, butthere was no remedy. We durst not go about to retreat, for we shouldhave been in such confusion that the enemy must have discovered it; somy lord resolved to keep the post, if possible, and send to the kingfor some foot. Then were our men ready to fight with one another whoshould be the messenger; and at last when a lieutenant with twentydragoons was despatched, he told us afterwards he found himself anhundred strong before he was gotten a mile from the place.

  In short, as soon as ever the day declined, and the dusk of theevening began to shelter the designs of the men, they dropped awayfrom us one by one; and at last in such numbers, that if we had stayedtill the morning, we had not had fifty men left; out of 1200 horse anddragoons.

  When I saw how it was, consulting with some of the officers, we allwent to my Lord Holland, and pressed him to retreat, before the enemyshould discern the flight of our men; so he drew us off, and we cameto the camp the next morning, in the shamefullest condition that everpoor men could do. And this was the end of the worst expedition ever Imade in my life.

  To fight and be beaten is a casualty common to a soldier, and I havesince had enough of it; but to run away at the sight of an enemy,and neither strike or be stricken, this is the very shame of theprofession, and no man that has done it ought to show his faceagain in the field, unless disadvantages of place or number make ittolerable, neither of which was our case.

  My Lord Holland made another march a few days after, in hopes toretrieve this miscarriage; but I had enough of it, so I kept in myquarters. And though his men did not desert him as before, yet uponthe appearance of the enemy they did not think fit to fight, and cameoff with but little more honour than they did before.

  There was no need to go out to seek the enemy after this, for theycame, as I have noted, and pitched in sight of us, and their partiescame up every day to the very out-works of Berwick, but nobodycared to meddle with them. And in this posture things stood when thepacification was agreed on by both parties, which, like a short truce,only gave both sides breath to prepare for a new war more ridiculouslymanaged than the former. When the treaty was so near a conclusionas that conversation was admitted on both sides, I went over to theScotch camp to satisfy my curiosity, as many of our English officersdid also.

  I confess the soldiers made a very uncouth figure, especially theHighlanders. The oddness and barbarity of their garb and arms seemedto have something in it remarkable.

  They were generally tall swinging fellows; their swords wereextravagantly, and, I think, insignificantly broad, and they carriedgreat wooden targets, large enough to cover the upper part of theirbodies. Their dress was as antique as the rest; a cap on their heads,called by them a bonnet, long hanging sleeves behind, and theirdoublet, breeches, and stockings of a stuff they called plaid, stripedacross red and yellow, with short cloaks of the same. These fellowslooked, when drawn out, like a regiment of merry-andrews, ready forBartholomew Fair. They are in companies all of a name, and thereforecall one another only by their Christian names, as Jemmy, Jocky, thatis, John, and Sawny, that is, Alexander, and the like. And they scornto be commanded but by one of their own clan or family. They are allgentlemen, and proud enough to be kings. The meanest fellow among themis as tenacious of his honour as the best nobleman in the country,and they will fight and cut one another's throats for every triflingaffront.

  But to their own clans or lairds, they are the willingest and mostobedient fellows in nature. Give them their due, were their skill inexercises and discipline proportioned to their courage, they wouldmake the bravest soldiers in the world. They are large bodies, andprodigiously strong; and two qualities they have above other nations,viz., hardy to endure hunger, cold, and hardships, and wonderfullyswift of foot. The latt
er is such an advantage in the field that Iknow none like it; for if they conquer, no enemy can escape them, andif they run, even the horse can hardly overtake them. These were someof them, who, as I observed before, went out in parties with theirhorse.

  There were three or four thousand of these in the Scots army, armedonly with swords and targets; and in their belts some of them had apistol, but no muskets at that time among them.

  But there were also a great many regiments of disciplined men, who,by their carrying their arms, looked as if they understood theirbusiness, and by their faces, that they durst see an enemy.

  I had not been half-an-hour in their camp after the ceremony of givingour names, and passing their out-guards and main-guard was over, butI was saluted by several of my acquaintance; and in particular, by onewho led the Scotch volunteers at the taking the castle of Oppenheim,of which I have given an account. They used me with all the respectthey thought due to me, on account of old affairs, gave me the word,and a sergeant waited upon me whenever I pleased to go abroad.

  I continued twelve or fourteen days among them, till the pacificationwas concluded; and they were ordered to march home. They spoke veryrespectfully of the king, but I found were exasperated to the lastdegree at Archbishop Laud and the English bishops, for endeavouring toimpose the Common Prayer Book upon them; and they always talked withthe utmost contempt of our soldiers and army. I always waived thediscourse about the clergy, and the occasion of the war, but I couldnot but be too sensible what they said of our men was true; and bythis I perceived they had an universal intelligence from among us,both of what we were doing, and what sort of people we were that weredoing it; and they were mighty desirous of coming to blows with us. Ihad an invitation from their general, but I declined it, lest I shouldgive offence. I found they accepted the pacification as a thing notlikely to hold, or that they did not design should hold; and thatthey were resolved to keep their forces on foot, notwithstanding theagreement. Their whole army was full of brave officers, men of asmuch experience and conduct as any in the world; and all men who knowanything of the war, know good officers presently make a good army.

  Things being thus huddled up, the English came back to York, wherethe army separated, and the Scots went home to increase theirs; for Ieasily foresaw that peace was the farthest thing from their thoughts.

  The next year the flame broke out again. The king draws his forcesdown into the north, as before, and expresses were sent to all thegentlemen that had commands to be at the place by the 15th of July. AsI had accepted of no command in the army, so I had no inclination atall to go, for I foresaw there would be nothing but disgrace attendit. My father, observing such an alteration in my usual forwardness,asked me one day what was the matter, that I who used to be so forwardto go into the army, and so eager to run abroad to fight, now showedno inclination to appear when the service of the king and countrycalled me to it? I told him I had as much zeal as ever for the king'sservice, and for the country too: but he knew a soldier could notabide to be beaten; and being from thence a little more inquisitive, Itold him the observations I had made in the Scots army, and the peopleI had conversed with there. "And, sir," says I, "assure yourself, ifthe king offers to fight them, he will be beaten; and I don't love toengage when my judgment tells me beforehand I shall be worsted."And as I had foreseen, it came to pass; for the Scots resolving toproceed, never stood upon the ceremony of aggression, as before, buton the 20th of August they entered England with their army.

  However, as my father desired, I went to the king's army, which wasthen at York, but not gotten all together. The king himself was atLondon, but upon this news takes post for the army, and advancing apart of his forces, he posted the Lord Conway and Sir Jacob Astley,with a brigade of foot and some horse, at Newburn, upon the riverTyne, to keep the Scots from passing that river.

  The Scots could have passed the Tyne without fighting; but to let ussee that they were able to force their passage, they fall upon hisbody of men and notwithstanding all the advantages of the place, theybeat them from the post, took their baggage and two pieces of cannon,with some prisoners. Sir Jacob Astley made what resistance he could,but the Scots charged with so much fury, and being also overpowered,he was soon put into confusion. Immediately the Scots made themselvesmasters of Newcastle, and the next day of Durham, and laid those twocounties under intolerable contributions.

  Now was the king absolutely ruined; for among his own people thediscontents before were so plain, that had the clergy had anyforecast, they would never have embroiled him with the Scots, till hehad fully brought matters to an understanding at home. But thecase was thus: the king, by the good husbandry of Bishop Juxon, histreasurer, had a million of ready money in his treasury, and upon thataccount, having no need of a Parliament, had not called one in twelveyears; and perhaps had never called another, if he had not by thisunhappy circumstance been reduced to a necessity of it; for nowthis ready money was spent in two foolish expeditions, and his armyappeared in a condition not fit to engage the Scots. The detachmentunder Sir Jacob Astley, which were of the flower of his men, hadbeen routed at Newburn, and the enemy had possession of two entirecounties.

  All men blamed Laud for prompting the king to provoke the Scots, aheadstrong nation, and zealous for their own way of worship; and Laudhimself found too late the consequences of it, both to the whole causeand to himself; for the Scots, whose native temper is not easily toforgive an injury, pursued him by their party in England, and nevergave it over till they laid his head on the block.

  The ruined country now clamoured in his Majesty's ears with dailypetitions, and the gentry of other neighbouring counties cry out forpeace and Parliament. The king, embarrassed with these difficulties,and quite empty of money, calls a great council of the nobility atYork, and demands their advice, which any one could have told himbefore would be to call a Parliament.

  I cannot, without regret, look back upon the misfortune of the king,who, as he was one of the best princes in his personal conduct thatever reigned in England, had yet some of the greatest unhappinesses inhis conduct as a king, that ever prince had, and the whole course ofhis life demonstrated it.

  1. An impolitic honesty. His enemies called it obstinacy; but as I wasperfectly acquainted with his temper, I cannot but think it was hisjudgment, when he thought he was in the right, to adhere to it as aduty though against his interest.

  2. Too much compliance when he was complying. No man but himself wouldhave denied what at some times he denied, and have granted what atother times he granted; and this uncertainty of counsel proceeded fromtwo things.

  1. The heat of the clergy, to whom he was exceedingly devoted, and forwhom, indeed, he ruined himself.

  2. The wisdom of his nobility.

  Thus when the counsel of his priests prevailed, all was fire andfury; the Scots were rebels, and must be subdued, and the Parliament'sdemands were to be rejected as exorbitant. But whenever the king'sjudgment was led by the grave and steady advice of his nobility andcounsellors, he was always inclined by them to temperate his measuresbetween the two extremes. And had he gone on in such a temper, he hadnever met with the misfortunes which afterward attended him, or hadso many thousands of his friends lost their lives and fortunes in hisservice.

  I am sure we that knew what it was to fight for him, and that lovedhim better than any of the clergy could pretend to, have had manya consultation how to bring over our master from so espousing theirinterest, as to ruin himself for it; but 'twas in vain.

  I took this interval when I sat still and only looked on, to makethese remarks, because I remember the best friends the king had wereat this time of that opinion, that 'twas an unaccountable pieceof indiscretion, to commence a quarrel with the Scots, a poor andobstinate people, for a ceremony and book of Church discipline, at atime when the king stood but upon indifferent terms with his people athome.

  The consequence was, it put arms into the hands of his subjects torebel against him; it embroiled him with his Parliament in Engla
nd, towhom he was fain to stoop in a fatal and unusual manner to get money,all his own being spent, and so to buy off the Scots whom he could notbeat off.

  I cannot but give one instance of the unaccountable politics of hisministers. If they overruled this unhappy king to it, with design toexhaust and impoverish him, they were the worst of traitors; if not,the grossest of fools. They prompted the king to equip a fleet againstthe Scots, and to put on board it 5000 land men. Had this been all,the design had been good, that while the king had faced the army uponthe borders, these 5000, landing in the Firth of Edinburgh, mighthave put that whole nation into disorder. But in order to this, theyadvised the king to lay out his money in fitting out the biggest shipshe had, and the "Royal Sovereign," the biggest ship the world had everseen, which cost him no less than L100,000, was now built, and fittedout for this voyage.

  This was the most incongruous and ridiculous advice that could begiven, and made us all believe we were betrayed, though we knew not bywhom.

  To fit out ships of 100 guns to invade Scotland, which had not oneman-of-war in the world, nor any open confederacy with any prince orstate that had any fleet, 'twas a most ridiculous thing. An hundredsail of Newcastle colliers, to carry the men with their stores andprovisions, and ten frigates of 40 guns each, had been as good a fleetas reason and the nature of the thing could have made tolerable.

  Thus things were carried on, till the king, beggared by themismanagement of his counsels, and beaten by the Scots, was driven tothe necessity of calling a Parliament in England.

  It is not my design to enter into the feuds and brangles of thisParliament. I have noted, by observations of their mistakes, whobrought the king to this happy necessity of calling them.

  His Majesty had tried Parliaments upon several occasions before, butnever found himself so much embroiled with them but he could send themhome, and there was an end of it; but as he could not avoid callingthese, so they took care to put him out of a condition to dismissthem.

  The Scots army was now quartered upon the English. The counties,the gentry, and the assembly of lords at York, petitioned for aParliament.

  The Scots presented their demands to the king, in which it wasobserved that matters were concerted between them and a party inEngland; and I confess when I saw that, I began to think the king inan ill case; for as the Scots pretended grievances, we thought,the king redressing those grievances, they could ask no more; andtherefore all men advised the king to grant their full demands. Andwhereas the king had not money to supply the Scots in their marchhome, I know there were several meetings of gentlemen with a design toadvance considerable sums of money to the king to set him free, andin order to reinstate his Majesty, as before. Not that we ever advisedthe king to rule without a Parliament, but we were very desirous ofputting him out of the necessity of calling them, at least just then.

  But the eighth article of the Scots' demands expressly required, thatan English Parliament might be called to remove all obstructions ofcommerce, and to settle peace, religion, and liberty; and in anotherarticle they tell the king, the 24th of September being the time hisMajesty appointed for the meeting of the peers, will make it too longere the Parliament meet. And in another, that a Parliament was theonly way of settling peace, and bring them to his Majesty's obedience.

  When we saw this in the army, 'twas time to look about. Everybodyperceived that the Scots army would call an English Parliament; andwhatever aversion the king had to it, we all saw he would be obligedto comply with it; and now they all began to see their error, whoadvised the king to this Scotch war.

  While these things were transacting, the assembly of the peers meet atYork, and by their advice a treaty was begun with the Scots. I had thehonour to be sent with the first message which was in writing.

  I brought it, attended by a trumpet and a guard of 500 horse, tothe Scots quarters. I was stopped at Darlington, and my errand beingknown, General Leslie sent a Scots major and fifty horses to receiveme, but would let neither my trumpet or guard set foot withintheir quarters. In this manner I was conducted to audience in thechapter-house at Durham, where a committee of Scots lords who attendedthe army received me very courteously, and gave me their answer inwriting also.

  'Twas in this answer that they showed, at least to me, their designof embroiling the king with his English subjects; they discoursed veryfreely with me, and did not order me to withdraw when they debatedtheir private opinions. They drew up several answers but did not likethem; at last they gave me one which I did not receive, I thought itwas too insolent to be borne with. As near as I can remember it wasthus: The commissioners of Scotland attending the service in the army,do refuse any treaty in the city of York.

  One of the commissioners who treated me with more distinction than therest, and discoursed freely with me, gave me an opportunity to speakmore freely of this than I expected.

  I told them if they would return to his Majesty an answer fit for meto carry, or if they would say they would not treat at all, I woulddeliver such a message. But I entreated them to consider the answerwas to their sovereign, and to whom they made a great profession ofduty and respect, and at least they ought to give their reasons whythey declined a treaty at York, and to name some other place, orhumbly to desire his Majesty to name some other place; but to sendword they would not treat at York, I could deliver no such message,for when put into English it would signify they would not treat atall.

  I used a great many reasons and arguments with them on this head,and at last with some difficulty obtained of them to give the reason,which was the Earl of Strafford's having the chief command at York,whom they declared their mortal enemy, he having declared them rebelsin Ireland.

  With this answer I returned. I could make no observations in the shorttime I was with them, for as I stayed but one night, so I was guardedas a close prisoner all the while. I saw several of their officerswhom I knew, but they durst not speak to me, and if they would haveventured, my guard would not have permitted them.

  In this manner I was conducted out of their quarters to my own partyagain, and having delivered my message to the king and told hisMajesty the circumstances, I saw the king receive the account of thehaughty behaviour of the Scots with some regret; however, it was hisMajesty's time now to bear, and therefore the Scots were compliedwith, and the treaty appointed at Ripon; where, after much debate,several preliminary articles were agreed on, as a cessation of arms,quarters, and bounds to the armies, subsistence to the Scots army, andthe residue of the demands was referred to a treaty at London, &c.

  We were all amazed at the treaty, and I cannot but remember we used towish much rather we had been suffered to fight; for though we had beenworsted at first, the power and strength of the king's interest, whichwas not yet tried, must, in fine, have been too strong for the Scots,whereas now we saw the king was for complying with anything, and allhis friends would be ruined.

  I confess I had nothing to fear, and so was not much concerned, butour predictions soon came to pass, for no sooner was this Parliamentcalled but abundance of those who had embroiled their king with hispeople of both kingdoms, like the disciples when their Master wasbetrayed to the Jews, forsook him and fled; and now Parliament tyrannybegan to succeed Church tyranny, and we soldiers were glad to see itat first. The bishops trembled, the judges went to gaol, the officersof the customs were laid hold on; and the Parliament began to laytheir fingers on the great ones, particularly Archbishop Laud and theEarl of Strafford. We had no great concern for the first, but thelast was a man of so much conduct and gallantry, and so beloved by thesoldiers and principal gentry of England, that everybody was touchedwith his misfortune.

  The Parliament now grew mad in their turn, and as the prosperity ofany party is the time to show their discretion, the Parliament showedthey knew as little where to stop as other people. The king was not ina condition to deny anything, and nothing could be demanded but theypushed it. They attainted the Earl of Strafford, and thereby madethe king cut off his right hand to save his
left, and yet not saveit neither. They obtained another bill to empower them to sit duringtheir own pleasure, and after them, triennial Parliaments to meet,whether the king call them or no; and granting this completed hisMajesty's ruin.

  Had the House only regulated the abuses of the court, punished evilcounsellors, and restored Parliaments to their original and justpowers, all had been well, and the king, though he had been more thanmortified, had yet reaped the benefit of future peace; for nowthe Scots were sent home, after having eaten up two countries, andreceived a prodigious sum of money to boot. And the king, though toolate, goes in person to Edinburgh, and grants them all they coulddesire, and more than they asked; but in England, the desires of ourswere unbounded, and drove at all extremes.

  They drew out the bishops from sitting in the House, made aprotestation equivalent to the Scotch Covenant, and this done, printtheir remonstrance. This so provoked the king, that he resolves uponseizing some of the members, and in an ill hour enters the House inperson to take them. Thus one imprudent thing on one hand producedanother of the other hand, till the king was obliged to leave them tothemselves, for fear of being mobbed into something or other unworthyof himself.

  These proceedings began to alarm the gentry and nobility of England;for, however willing we were to have evil counsellors removed, andthe government return to a settled and legal course, according to thehappy constitution of this nation, and might have been forward enoughto have owned the king had been misled, and imposed upon to do thingswhich he had rather had not been done, yet it did not follow, thatall the powers and prerogatives of the crown should devolve upon theParliament, and the king in a manner be deposed, or else sacrificed tothe fury of the rabble.

  The heats of the House running them thus to all extremes, and at lastto take from the king the power of the militia, which indeed wasall that was left to make him anything of a king, put the king uponopposing force with force; and thus the flame of civil war began.

  However backward I was in engaging in the second year's expeditionagainst the Scots, I was as forward now, for I waited on the kingat York, where a gallant company of gentlemen as ever were seen inEngland, engaged themselves to enter into his service; and here someof us formed ourselves into troops for the guard of his person.

  The king having been waited upon by the gentry of Yorkshire, andhaving told them his resolution of erecting his royal standard, andreceived from them hearty assurances of support, dismisses them, andmarches to Hull, where lay the train of artillery, and all thearms and ammunition belonging to the northern army which had beendisbanded. But here the Parliament had been beforehand with hisMajesty, so that when he came to Hull, he found the gates shut, andSir John Hotham, the governor, upon the walls, though with a greatdeal of seeming humility and protestations of loyalty to his person,yet with a positive denial to admit any of the king's attendants intothe town. If his Majesty pleased to enter the town in person with anyreasonable number of his household, he would submit, but would notbe prevailed on to receive the king as he would be received, with hisforces, though those forces were then but very few.

  The king was exceedingly provoked at this repulse, and indeed it wasa great surprise to us all, for certainly never prince began a waragainst the whole strength of his kingdom under the circumstances thathe was in. He had not a garrison, or a company of soldiers in hispay, not a stand of arms, or a barrel of powder, a musket, cannonor mortar, not a ship of all the fleet, or money in his treasury toprocure them; whereas the Parliament had all his navy, and ordnance,stores, magazines, arms, ammunition, and revenue in their keeping.And this I take to be another defect of the king's counsel, and a sadinstance of the distraction of his affairs, that when he saw how allthings were going to wreck, as it was impossible but he should see it,and 'tis plain he did see it, that he should not long enough before itcame to extremities secure the navy, magazines, and stores of war, inthe hands of his trusty servants, that would have been sure to havepreserved them for his use, at a time when he wanted them.

  It cannot be supposed but the gentry of England, who generallypreserved their loyalty for their royal master, and at last heartilyshowed it, were exceedingly discouraged at first when they saw theParliament had all the means of making war in their own hands, and theking was naked and destitute either of arms or ammunition, or moneyto procure them. Not but that the king, by extraordinary application,recovered the disorder the want of these things had thrown him into,and supplied himself with all things needful.

  But my observation was this, had his Majesty had the magazines, navy,and forts in his own hand, the gentry, who wanted but the prospect ofsomething to encourage them, had come in at first, and the Parliament,being unprovided, would have been presently reduced to reason. Butthis was it that balked the gentry of Yorkshire, who went home again,giving the king good promises, but never appeared for him, tillby raising a good army in Shropshire and Wales, he marched towardsLondon, and they saw there was a prospect of their being supported.

  In this condition the king erected his standard at Nottingham, 22ndAugust 1642, and I confess, I had very melancholy apprehensions ofthe king's affairs, for the appearance to the royal standard wasbut small. The affront the king had met with at Hull, had balked anddispirited the northern gentry, and the king's affairs looked witha very dismal aspect. We had expresses from London of the prodigioussuccess of the Parliament levies, how their men came in faster thanthey could entertain them, and that arms were delivered out to wholecompanies listed together, and the like. And all this while theking had not got together a thousand foot, and had no arms for themneither. When the king saw this, he immediately despatches fiveseveral messengers, whereof one went to the Marquis of Worcester intoWales; one went to the queen, then at Windsor; one to the Dukeof Newcastle, then Marquis of Newcastle, into the north; one intoScotland; and one into France, where the queen soon after arrived toraise money, and buy arms, and to get what assistance she could amongher own friends. Nor was her Majesty idle, for she sent over severalships laden with arms and ammunition, with a fine train of artillery,and a great many very good officers; and though one of the first fellinto the hands of the Parliament, with three hundred barrels of powderand some arms, and one hundred and fifty gentlemen, yet most of thegentlemen found means, one way or other, to get to us, and most ofthe ships the queen freighted arrived; and at last her Majesty cameherself, and brought an extraordinary supply both of men, money,arms, &c., with which she joined the king's forces under the Earl ofNewcastle in the north.

  Finding his Majesty thus bestirring himself to muster his friendstogether, I asked him if he thought it might not be for his Majesty'sservice to let me go among my friends, and his loyal subjects aboutShrewsbury? "Yes," says the king, smiling, "I intend you shall, andI design to go with you myself." I did not understand what the kingmeant then, and did not think it good manners to inquire, but the nextday I found all things disposed for a march, and the king on horsebackby eight of the clock; when calling me to him, he told me I shouldgo before, and let my father and all my friends know he would be atShrewsbury the Saturday following. I left my equipages, and takingpost with only one servant, was at my father's the next morning bybreak of day. My father was not surprised at the news of the king'scoming at all, for, it seems, he, together with the royal gentry ofthose parts, had sent particularly to give the king an invitation tomove that way, which I was not made privy to, with an account whatencouragement they had there in the endeavours made for his interest.In short, the whole country was entirely for the king, and such wasthe universal joy the people showed when the news of his Majesty'scoming down was positively known, that all manner of business was laidaside, and the whole body of the people seemed to be resolved upon thewar.

  As this gave a new face to the king's affairs, so I must own it filledme with joy; for I was astonished before, when I considered whatthe king and his friends were like to be exposed to. The news of theproceedings of the Parliament, and their powerful preparations, werenow no more terrible; th
e king came at the time appointed, andhaving lain at my father's house one night, entered Shrewsbury in themorning. The acclamations of the people, the concourse of the nobilityand gentry about his person, and the crowds which now came every dayinto the standard, were incredible.

  The loyalty of the English gentry was not only worth notice, but thepower of the gentry is extraordinary visible in this matter. Theking, in about six weeks' time, which was the most of his stay atShrewsbury, was supplied with money, arms, ammunition, and a train ofartillery, and listed a body of an army upwards of 20,000 men.

  His Majesty seeing the general alacrity of his people, immediatelyissued out commissions, and formed regiments of horse and foot;and having some experienced officers about him, together with aboutsixteen who came from France, with a ship loaded with arms and somefield-pieces which came very seasonably into the Severn, the men wereexercised, regularly disciplined, and quartered, and now we began tolook like soldiers. My father had raised a regiment of horse at hisown charge, and completed them, and the king gave out arms to themfrom the supplies which I mentioned came from abroad. Another partyof horse, all brave stout fellows, and well mounted, came in fromLancashire, and the Earl of Derby at the head of them. The Welshmencame in by droves; and so great was the concourse of people, that theking began to think of marching, and gave the command, as well as thetrust of regulating the army, to the brave Earl of Lindsey, as generalof the foot. The Parliament general being the Earl of Essex, twobraver men, or two better officers, were not in the kingdom; they hadboth been old soldiers, and had served together as volunteers in theLow Country wars, under Prince Maurice. They had been comrades andcompanions abroad, and now came to face one another as enemies in thefield.

  Such was the expedition used by the king and his friends, in thelevies of this first army, that notwithstanding the wonderfulexpedition the Parliament made, the king was in the field before them;and now the gentry in other parts of the nation bestirred themselves,and seized upon, and garrisoned several considerable places, for theking. In the north, the Earl of Newcastle not only garrisoned the mostconsiderable places, but even the general possession of the north wasfor the king, excepting Hull, and some few places, which the old LordFairfax had taken up for the Parliament. On the other hand, entireCornwall and most of the western counties were the king's. TheParliament had their chief interest in the south and eastern partof England, as Kent, Surrey, and, Sussex, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk,Cambridge, Bedford, Huntingdon, Hertford, Buckinghamshire, and theother midland counties. These were called, or some of them at least,the associated counties, and felt little of the war, other thanthe charges; but the main support of the Parliament was the city ofLondon.

  The king made the seat of his court at Oxford, which he caused to beregularly fortified. The Lord Say had been here, and had possession ofthe city for the enemy, and was debating about fortifying it, butcame to no resolution, which was a very great over-sight in them; thesituation of the place, and the importance of it, on many accounts,to the city of London, considered; and they would have retrieved thiserror afterwards, but then 'twas too late; for the king made it theheadquarter, and received great supplies and assistance from thewealth of the colleges, and the plenty of the neighbouring country.Abingdon, Wallingford, Basing, and Reading, were all garrisoned andfortified as outworks to defend this as the centre. And thus allEngland became the theatre of blood, and war was spread into everycorner of the country, though as yet there was no stroke struck. I hadno command in this army. My father led his own regiment, and, old ashe was, would not leave his royal master, and my elder brother stayedat home to support the family. As for me, I rode a volunteer in theroyal troop of guards, which may very well deserve the title of aroyal troop, for it was composed of young gentlemen, sons of thenobility, and some of the prime gentry of the nation, and I think nota person of so mean a birth or fortune as myself. We reckoned in thistroop two and thirty lords, or who came afterwards to be such,and eight and thirty of younger sons of the nobility, five Frenchnoblemen, and all the rest gentlemen of very good families andestates.

  And that I may give the due to their personal valour, many of thistroop lived afterwards to have regiments and troops under theircommand in the service of the king, many of them lost their lives forhim, and most of them their estates. Nor did they behave unworthy ofthemselves in their first showing their faces to the enemy, as shallbe mentioned in its place.

  While the king remained at Shrewsbury, his loyal friends bestirredthemselves in several parts of the kingdom. Goring had securedPortsmouth, but being young in matters of war, and not in timerelieved, though the Marquis of Hertford was marching to relieve him,yet he was obliged to quit the place, and shipped himself for Holland,from whence he returned with relief for the king, and afterwardsdid very good service upon all occasions, and so effectually clearedhimself of the scandal the hasty surrender of Portsmouth had broughtupon his courage.

  The chief power of the king's forces lay in three places, in Cornwall,in Yorkshire, and at Shrewsbury. In Cornwall, Sir Ralph Hopton,afterwards Lord Hopton, Sir Bevil Grenvile, and Sir Nicholas Slanningsecured all the country, and afterwards spread themselves overDevonshire and Somersetshire, took Exeter from the Parliament,fortified Bridgewater and Barnstaple, and beat Sir William Waller atthe battle of Roundway Down, as I shall touch at more particularlywhen I come to recite the part of my own travels that way.

  In the north, The Marquis of Newcastle secured all the country,garrisoned York, Scarborough, Carlisle, Newcastle, Pomfret, Leeds, andall the considerable places, and took the field with a very good army,though afterwards he proved more unsuccessful than the rest, havingthe whole power of a kingdom at his back, the Scots coming in withan army to the assistance of the Parliament, which, indeed, was thegeneral turn of the scale of the war; for had it not been for thisScots army, the king had most certainly reduced the Parliament, atleast to good terms of peace, in two years' time.

  The king was the third article. His force at Shrewsbury I have notedalready. The alacrity of the gentry filled him with hopes, and all hisarmy with vigour, and the 8th of October 1642, his Majesty gave ordersto march. The Earl of Essex had spent above a month after his leavingLondon (for he went thence the 9th of September) in modelling anddrawing together his forces; his rendezvous was at St Albans, fromwhence he marched to Northampton, Coventry, and Warwick, and leavinggarrisons in them, he comes on to Worcester. Being thus advanced, hepossesses Oxford, as I noted before, Banbury, Bristol, Gloucester, andWorcester, out of all which places, except Gloucester, we drove himback to London in a very little while.

  Sir John Byron had raised a very good party of 500 horse, mostgentlemen, for the king, and had possessed Oxford; but on the approachof the Lord Say quitted it, being now but an open town, and retreatedto Worcester, from whence, on the approach of Essex's army, heretreated to the king. And now all things grew ripe for action, bothparties having secured their posts, and settled their schemes of thewar, taken their posts and places as their measures and opportunitiesdirected. The field was next in their eye, and the soldiers began toinquire when they should fight, for as yet there had been little or noblood drawn; and 'twas not long before they had enough of it; for, Ibelieve, I may challenge all the historians in Europe to tell me ofany war in the world where, in the space of four years, there were somany pitched battles, sieges, fights, and skirmishes, as in this war.We never encamped or entrenched, never fortified the avenues to ourposts, or lay fenced with rivers and defiles; here was no leaguers inthe field, as at the story of Nuremberg, neither had our soldiers anytents, or what they call heavy baggage. 'Twas the general maxim ofthis war, "Where is the enemy? let us go and fight them," or, on theother hand, if the enemy was coming, "What was to be done?" "Why, whatshould be done? Draw out into the fields and fight them." I cannot say'twas the prudence of the parties, and had the king fought less he hadgained more. And I shall remark several times when the eagerness offighting was the worst counsel, and proved our loss. This benefit,however, ha
ppened in general to the country, that it made a quick,though a bloody, end of the war, which otherwise had lasted till itmight have ruined the whole nation.

  On the 10th of October the king's army was in full march, his Majesty,generalissimo, the Earl of Lindsey, general of the foot, PrinceRupert, general of the horse; and the first action in the field was byPrince Rupert and Sir John Byron. Sir John had brought his body of500 horse, as I noted already, from Oxford to Worcester; the LordSay, with a strong party, being in the neighbourhood of Oxford, andexpected in the town, Colonel Sandys, a hot man, and who had morecourage than judgment, advances with about 1500 horse and dragoons,with design to beat Sir John Byron out of Worcester, and take postthere for the Parliament.

  The king had notice that the Earl of Essex designed for Worcester, andPrince Rupert was ordered to advance with a body of horse and dragoonsto face the enemy, and bring off Sir John Byron. This his Majesty didto amuse the Earl of Essex, that he might expect him that way; whereasthe king's design was to get between the Earl of Essex's army and thecity of London; and his Majesty's end was doubly answered, for henot only drew Essex on to Worcester, where he spent more time than heneeded, but he beat the party into the bargain.

  I went volunteer in this party, and rode in my father's regiment; forthough we really expected not to see the enemy, yet I was tired withlying still. We came to Worcester just as notice was brought toSir John Byron, that a party of the enemy was on their march forWorcester, upon which the prince immediately consulting what was to bedone, resolves to march the next morning and fight them.

  The enemy, who lay at Pershore, about eight miles from Worcester, and,as I believe, had no notice of our march, came on very confidentlyin the morning, and found us fairly drawn up to receive them. I mustconfess this was the bluntest, downright way of making war that everwas seen. The enemy, who, in all the little knowledge I had of war,ought to have discovered our numbers, and guessed by our posture whatour design was, might easily have informed themselves that we intendedto attack them, and so might have secured the advantage of a bridge intheir front; but without any regard to these methods of policy, theycame on at all hazards. Upon this notice, my father proposed to theprince to halt for them, and suffer ourselves to be attacked, sincewe found them willing to give us the advantage. The prince approved ofthe advice, so we halted within view of a bridge, leaving space enoughon our front for about half the number of their forces to pass anddraw up; and at the bridge was posted about fifty dragoons, withorders to retire as soon as the enemy advanced, as if they had beenafraid. On the right of the road was a ditch, and a very high bankbehind, where we had placed 300 dragoons, with orders to lie flat ontheir faces till the enemy had passed the bridge, and to let fly amongthem as soon as our trumpets sounded a charge. Nobody but ColonelSandys would have been caught in such a snare, for he might easilyhave seen that when he was over the bridge there was not room enoughfor him to fight in. But the Lord of hosts was so much in theirmouths, for that was the word for that day, that they took little heedhow to conduct the host of the Lord to their own advantage.

  As we expected, they appeared, beat our dragoons from the bridge, andpassed it. We stood firm in one line with a reserve, and expected acharge, but Colonel Sandys, showing a great deal more judgment thanwe thought he was master of, extends himself to the left, findingthe ground too strait, and began to form his men with a great deal ofreadiness and skill, for by this time he saw our number was greaterthan he expected. The prince perceiving it, and foreseeing that thestratagem of the dragoons would be frustrated by this, immediatelycharges with the horse, and the dragoons at the same time standingupon their feet, poured in their shot upon those that were passingthe bridge. This surprise put them into such disorder, that we had butlittle work with them. For though Colonel Sandys with the troops nexthim sustained the shock very well, and behaved themselves gallantlyenough, yet the confusion beginning in their rear, those that had notyet passed the bridge were kept back by the fire of the dragoons,and the rest were easily cut in pieces. Colonel Sandys was mortallywounded and taken prisoner, and the crowd was so great to get back,that many pushed into the water, and were rather smothered thandrowned. Some of them who never came into the fight, were so frighted,that they never looked behind them till they came to Pershore, and,as we were afterwards informed, the lifeguards of the general who hadquartered in the town, left it in disorder enough, expecting us at theheels of their men.

  If our business had been to keep the Parliament army from coming toWorcester, we had a very good opportunity to have secured the bridgeat Pershore; but our design lay another way, as I have said, and theking was for drawing Essex on to the Severn, in hopes to get behindhim, which fell out accordingly.

  Essex, spurred by this affront in the infancy of their affairs,advances the next day, and came to Pershore time enough to be at thefuneral of some of his men; and from thence he advances to Worcester.

  We marched back to Worcester extremely pleased with the good successof our first attack, and our men were so flushed with this littlevictory that it put vigour into the whole army. The enemy lost about3000 men, and we carried away near 150 prisoners, with 500 horses,some standards and arms, and among the prisoners their colonel; but hedied a little after of his wounds.

  Upon the approach of the enemy, Worcester was quitted, and the forcesmarched back to join the king's army, which lay then at Bridgnorth,Ludlow, and thereabout. As the king expected, it fell out; Essex foundso much work at Worcester to settle Parliament quarters, and secureBristol, Gloucester, and Hereford, that it gave the king a full day'smarch of him. So the king, having the start of him, moves towardsLondon; and Essex, nettled to be both beaten in fight and outdone inconduct, decamps, and follows the king.

  The Parliament, and the Londoners too, were in a strange consternationat this mistake of their general; and had the king, whose greatmisfortune was always to follow precipitant advices,--had the king,I say, pushed on his first design, which he had formed with very goodreason, and for which he had been dodging with Essex eight or tendays, viz., of marching directly to London, where he had a verygreat interest, and where his friends were not yet oppressed andimpoverished, as they were afterwards, he had turned the scale of hisaffairs. And every man expected it; for the members began to shiftfor themselves, expresses were sent on the heels of one another to theEarl of Essex to hasten after the king, and, if possible, to bring himto a battle. Some of these letters fell into our hands, and we mighteasily discover that the Parliament were in the last confusion atthe thoughts of our coming to London. Besides this, the city was in aworse fright than the House, and the great moving men began to goout of town. In short, they expected us, and we expected to come, butProvidence for our ruin had otherwise determined it.

  Essex, upon news of the king's march, and upon receipt of theParliament's letters, makes long marches after us, and on the 23rd ofOctober reaches the village of Kineton, in Warwickshire. The king wasalmost as far as Banbury, and there calls a council of war. Some ofthe old officers that foresaw the advantage the king had, the concernthe city was in, and the vast addition, both to the reputation of hisforces and the increase of his interest, it would be if the king couldgain that point, urged the king to march on to London. PrinceRupert and the fresh colonels pressed for fighting, told the king itdispirited their men to march with the enemy at their heels; that theParliament army was inferior to him by 6000 men, and fatigued withhasty marching; that as their orders were to fight, he had nothingto do but to post himself to advantage, and receive them to theirdestruction; that the action near Worcester had let them know how easyit was to deal with a rash enemy; and that 'twas a dishonour for him,whose forces were so much superior, to be pursued by his subjects inrebellion. These and the like arguments prevailed with the king toalter his wiser measures and resolve to fight. Nor was this all; whena resolution of fighting was taken, that part of the advice which theywho were for fighting gave, as a reason for their opinion, was forgot,and instead of halting and posting
ourselves to advantage till theenemy came up, we were ordered to march back and meet them.

  Nay, so eager was the prince for fighting, that when, from the top ofEdgehill, the enemy's army was descried in the bottom between themand the village of Kineton, and that the enemy had bid us defiance,by discharging three cannons, we accepted the challenge, and answeringwith two shots from our army, we must needs forsake the advantagesof the hills, which they must have mounted under the command of ourcannon, and march down to them into the plain. I confess, I thoughthere was a great deal more gallantry than discretion; for it wasplainly taking an advantage out of our own hands, and putting it intothe hands of the enemy. An enemy that must fight, may always be foughtwith to advantage. My old hero, the glorious Gustavus Adolphus, was asforward to fight as any man of true valour mixed with any policy needto be, or ought to be; but he used to say, "An enemy reduced to anecessity of fighting is half beaten."

  Tis true, we were all but young in the war; the soldiers hot andforward, and eagerly desired to come to hands with the enemy. ButI take the more notice of it here, because the king in this actedagainst his own measures; for it was the king himself had laid thedesign of getting the start of Essex, and marching to London. Hisfriends had invited him thither, and expected him, and suffered deeplyfor the omission; and yet he gave way to these hasty counsels, andsuffered his judgment to be overruled by majority of voices; an error,I say, the King of Sweden was never guilty of. For if all the officersat a council of war were of a different opinion, yet unless theirreasons mastered his judgment, their votes never altered his measures.But this was the error of our good, but unfortunate master, threetimes in this war, and particularly in two of the greatest battles ofthe time, viz., this of Edgehill, and that of Naseby.

  The resolution for fighting being published in the army, gave anuniversal joy to the soldiers, who expressed an extraordinary ardourfor fighting. I remember my father talking with me about it, askedme what I thought of the approaching battle. I told him I thought theking had done very well; for at that time I did not consult the extentof the design, and had a mighty mind, like other rash people, to seeit brought to a day, which made me answer my father as I did. "But,"said I, "sir, I doubt there will be but indifferent doings on bothsides, between two armies both made up of fresh men, that have neverseen any service." My father minded little what I spoke of that; butwhen I seemed pleased that the king had resolved to fight, he lookedangrily at me, and told me he was sorry I could see no farther intothings. "I tell you," says he hastily, "if the king should kill andtake prisoners this whole army, general and all, the Parliament willhave the victory; for we have lost more by slipping this opportunityof getting into London, than we shall ever get by ten battles." Isaw enough of this afterwards to convince me of the weight of whatmy father said, and so did the king too; but it was then too late.Advantages slipped in war are never recovered.

  We were now in a full march to fight the Earl of Essex. It was onSunday morning the 24th of October 1642, fair weather overhead, butthe ground very heavy and dirty. As soon as we came to the top ofEdgehill, we discovered their whole army. They were not drawn up,having had two miles to march that morning, but they were very busyforming their lines, and posting the regiments as they came up. Someof their horse were exceedingly fatigued, having marched forty-eighthours together; and had they been suffered to follow us three or fourdays' march farther, several of their regiments of horse wouldhave been quite ruined, and their foot would have been renderedunserviceable for the present. But we had no patience.

  As soon as our whole army was come to the top of the hill, wewere drawn up in order of battle. The king's army made a very fineappearance; and indeed they were a body of gallant men as everappeared in the field, and as well furnished at all points; thehorse exceedingly well accoutred, being most of them gentlemen andvolunteers, some whole regiments serving without pay; their horsesvery good and fit for service as could be desired. The whole army werenot above 18,000 men, and the enemy not 1000 over or under, though wehad been told they were not above 12,000; but they had been reinforcedwith 4000 men from Northampton. The king was with the general, theEarl of Lindsey, in the main battle; Prince Rupert commanded the rightwing, and the Marquis of Hertford, the Lord Willoughby, and severalother very good officers the left.

  The signal of battle being given with two cannon shots, we marchedin order of battalia down the hill, being drawn up in two lines withbodies of reserve; the enemy advanced to meet us much in the sameform, with this difference only, that they had placed their cannon ontheir right, and the king had placed ours in the centre, before, orrather between two great brigades of foot. Their cannon began with usfirst, and did some mischief among the dragoons of our left wing; butour officers, perceiving the shot took the men and missed the horses,ordered all to alight, and every man leading his horse, to advance inthe same order; and this saved our men, for most of the enemy's shotflew over their heads. Our cannon made a terrible execution upon theirfoot for a quarter of an hour, and put them into great confusion,till the general obliged them to halt, and changed the posture of hisfront, marching round a small rising ground by which he avoided thefury of our artillery.

  By this time the wings were engaged, the king having given the signalof battle, and ordered the right wing to fall on. Prince Rupert, who,as is said, commanded that wing, fell on with such fury, and pushedthe left wing of the Parliament army so effectually, that in a momenthe filled all with terror and confusion. Commissary-General Ramsey, aScotsman, a Low Country Soldier, and an experienced officer, commandedtheir left wing, and though he did all that an expert soldier, anda brave commander could do, yet 'twas to no purpose; his lines wereimmediately broken, and all overwhelmed in a trice. Two regiments offoot, whether as part of the left wing, or on the left of the mainbody, I know not, were disordered by their own horse, and rathertrampled to death by the horses, than beaten by our men; but they wereso entirely broken and disordered, that I do not remember that everthey made one volley upon our men; for their own horse running away,and falling foul on these foot, were so vigorously followed by ourmen, that the foot never had a moment to rally or look behind them.The point of the left wing of horse were not so soon broken as therest, and three regiments of them stood firm for some time. Thedexterous officers of the other regiments taking the opportunity,rallied a great many of their scattered men behind them, and piecedin some troops with those regiments; but after two or three charges,which a brigade of our second line, following the prince, made uponthem, they also were broken with the rest.

  I remember that at the great battle of Leipsic, the right wing of theImperialists having fallen in upon the Saxons with like fury to this,bore down all before them, and beat the Saxons quite out of the field;upon which the soldiers cried, "Victoria, let us follow." "No, no,"said the old General Tilly, "let them go, but let us beat the Swedestoo, and then all's our own." Had Prince Rupert taken this method, andinstead of following the fugitives, who were dispersed so effectuallythat two regiments would have secured them from rallying--I say, hadhe fallen in upon the foot, or wheeled to the left, and fallen inupon the rear of the enemy's right wing of horse, or returned tothe assistance of the left wing of our horse, we had gained the mostabsolute and complete victory that could be; nor had 1000 men ofthe enemy's army got off. But this prince, who was full of fire, andpleased to see the rout of an enemy, pursued them quite to the town ofKineton, where indeed he killed abundance of their men, and some timealso was lost in plundering the baggage.

  But in the meantime, the glory and advantage of the day was lost tothe king, for the right wing of the Parliament horse could not be sobroken. Sir William Balfour made a desperate charge upon the point ofthe king's left, and had it not been for two regiments of dragoons whowere planted in the reserve, had routed the whole wing, for he brokethrough the first line, and staggered the second, who advanced totheir assistance, but was so warmly received by those dragoons, whocame seasonably in, and gave their first fire on horseback, that hi
sfury was checked, and having lost a great many men, was forced towheel about to his own men; and had the king had but three regimentsof horse at hand to have charged him, he had been routed. The rest ofthis wing kept their ground, and received the first fury of the enemywith great firmness; after which, advancing in their turn, theywere at once masters of the Earl of Essex's cannon. And here we lostanother advantage; for if any foot had been at hand to support thesehorse, they had carried off the cannon, or turned it upon the mainbattle of the enemy's foot, but the foot were otherwise engaged. Thehorse on this side fought with great obstinacy and variety of successa great while. Sir Philip Stapleton, who commanded the guards of theEarl of Essex, being engaged with a party of our Shrewsbury cavaliers,as we called them, was once in a fair way to have been cut off bya brigade of our foot, who, being advanced to fall on upon theParliament's main body, flanked Sir Philip's horse in their way, andfacing to the left, so furiously charged him with their pikes, that hewas obliged to retire in great disorder, and with the loss of a greatmany men and horses.

  All this while the foot on both sides were desperately engaged, andcoming close up to the teeth of one another with the clubbed musketand push of pike, fought with great resolution, and a terribleslaughter on both sides, giving no quarter for a great while; and theycontinued to do thus, till, as if they were tired, and out of wind,either party seemed willing enough to leave off, and take breath.Those which suffered most were that brigade which had charged SirWilliam Stapleton's horse, who being bravely engaged in the frontwith the enemy's foot, were, on the sudden, charged again in frontand flank by Sir William Balfour's horse and disordered, after avery desperate defence. Here the king's standard was taken, thestandard-bearer, Sir Edward Verney, being killed; but it was rescuedagain by Captain Smith, and brought to the king the same night, forwhich the king knighted the captain.

  This brigade of foot had fought all the day, and had not been brokenat last, if any horse had been at hand to support them. The fieldbegan to be now clear; both armies stood, as it were, gazing at oneanother, only the king, having rallied his foot, seemed inclined torenew the charge, and began to cannonade them, which they could notreturn, most of their cannon being nailed while they were in ourpossession, and all the cannoniers killed or fled; and our gunners didexecution upon Sir William Balfour's troops for a good while.

  My father's regiment being in the right with the prince, I saw littleof the fight but the rout of the enemy's left, and we had as full avictory there as we could desire, but spent too much time in it. Wekilled about 2000 men in that part of the action, and having totallydispersed them, and plundered their baggage, began to think of ourfellows when 'twas too late to help them. We returned, however,victorious to the king, just as the battle was over. The king askedthe prince what news? He told him he could give his Majesty a goodaccount of the enemy's horse. "Ay, by G--d," says a gentleman thatstood by me, "and of their carts too." That word was spoken with sucha sense of the misfortune, and made such an impression on the wholearmy, that it occasioned some ill blood afterwards among us; and butthat the king took up the business, it had been of ill consequence,for some person who had heard the gentleman speak it, informed theprince who it was, and the prince resenting it, spoke somethingabout it in the hearing of the party when the king was present. Thegentleman, not at all surprised, told his Highness openly he had saidthe words; and though he owned he had no disrespect for his Highness,yet he could not but say, if it had not been so, the enemy's army hadbeen better beaten. The prince replied something very disobliging;upon which the gentleman came up to the king, and kneeling, humblybesought his Majesty to accept of his commission, and to give himleave to tell the prince, that whenever his Highness pleased, he wasready to give him satisfaction. The prince was exceedingly provoked,and as he was very passionate, began to talk very oddly, and withoutall government of himself. The gentleman, as bold as he, but muchcalmer preserved his temper, but maintained his quarrel; and the kingwas so concerned, that he was very much out of humour with the princeabout it. However, his Majesty, upon consideration, soon ended thedispute, by laying his commands on them both to speak no more of itfor that day; and refusing the commission from the colonel, for hewas no less, sent for them both next morning in private, and made themfriends again.

  But to return to our story. We came back to the king timely enough toput the Earl of Essex's men out of all humour of renewing the fight,and as I observed before, both parties stood gazing at one another,and our cannon playing upon them obliged Sir William Balfour's horseto wheel off in some disorder, but they returned us none again, which,as we afterwards understood, was, as I said before, for want of bothpowder and gunners, for the cannoniers and firemen were killed, orhad quitted their train in the fight, when our horse had possession oftheir artillery; and as they had spiked up some of the cannon, so theyhad carried away fifteen carriages of powder.

  Night coming on, ended all discourse of more fighting, and the kingdrew off and marched towards the hills. I know no other token ofvictory which the enemy had than their lying in the field of battleall night, which they did for no other reason than that, having losttheir baggage and provisions, they had nowhere to go, and which we didnot, because we had good quarters at hand.

  The number of prisoners and of the slain were not very unequal; theenemy lost more men, we most of quality. Six thousand men on bothsides were killed on the spot, whereof, when our rolls were examined,we missed 2500. We lost our brave general the old Earl of Lindsey,who was wounded and taken prisoner, and died of his wounds; Sir EdwardStradling, Colonel Lundsford, prisoners; and Sir Edward Verney and agreat many gentlemen of quality slain. On the other hand, we carriedoff Colonel Essex, Colonel Ramsey, and the Lord St John, who also diedof his wounds; we took five ammunition waggons full of powder, andbrought off about 500 horse in the defeat of the left wing, witheighteen standards and colours, and lost seventeen.

  The slaughter of the left wing was so great, and the flight soeffectual, that several of the officers rid clear away, coastinground, and got to London, where they reported that the Parliament armywas entirely defeated--all lost, killed, or taken, as if none but themwere left alive to carry the news. This filled them with consternationfor a while, but when other messengers followed, all was restoredto quiet again, and the Parliament cried up their victory andsufficiently mocked God and their general with their public thanks forit. Truly, as the fight was a deliverance to them, they were in theright to give thanks for it; but as to its being a victory, neitherside had much to boast of, and they less a great deal than we had.

  I got no hurt in this fight, and indeed we of the right wing had butlittle fighting; I think I had discharged my pistols but once, and mycarabine twice, for we had more fatigue than fight; the enemyfled, and we had little to do but to follow and kill those we couldovertake. I spoiled a good horse, and got a better from the enemy inhis room, and came home weary enough. My father lost his horse, andin the fall was bruised in his thigh by another horse treading on him,which disabled him for some time, and at his request, by his Majesty'sconsent, I commanded the regiment in his absence.

  The enemy received a recruit of 4000 men the next morning; if they hadnot, I believe they had gone back towards Worcester; but, encouragedby that reinforcement, they called a council of war, and had a longdebate whether they could attack us again; but notwithstanding theirgreat victory, they durst not attempt it, though this addition ofstrength made them superior to us by 3000 men.

  The king indeed expected, that when these troops joined them theywould advance, and we were preparing to receive them at a villagecalled Aynho, where the headquarters continued three or four days;and had they really esteemed the first day's work a victory, as theycalled it, they would have done it, but they thought not good toventure, but march away to Warwick, and from thence to Coventry. Theking, to urge them to venture upon him, and come to a second battle,sits down before Banbury, and takes both town and castle; and twoentire regiments of foot, and one troop of horse, quit t
he Parliamentservice, and take up their arms for the king. This was done almostbefore their faces, which was a better proof of a victory on our side,than any they could pretend to. From Banbury we marched to Oxford; andnow all men saw the Parliament had made a great mistake, for they werenot always in the right any more than we, to leave Oxford without agarrison. The king caused new regular works to be drawn round it,and seven royal bastions with ravelins and out-works, a double ditch,counterscarp, and covered way; all which, added to the advantageof its situation, made it a formidable place, and from this time itbecame our place of arms, and the centre of affairs on the king'sside.

  If the Parliament had the honour of the field, the king reaped thefruits of the victory; for all this part of the country submitted tohim. Essex's army made the best of their way to London, and were butin an ill condition when they came there, especially their horse.

  The Parliament, sensible of this, and receiving daily accounts of theprogress we made, began to cool a little in their temper, abated oftheir first rage, and voted an address for peace; and sent to the kingto let him know they were desirous to prevent the effusion of moreblood, and to bring things to an accommodation, or, as they called it,a right understanding.

  I was now, by the king's particular favour, summoned to the councilsof war, my father continuing absent and ill; and now I began to thinkof the real grounds, and which was more, of the fatal issue of thiswar. I say, I now began it; for I cannot say that I ever rightlystated matters in my own mind before, though I had been enough usedto blood, and to see the destruction of people, sacking of towns, andplundering the country; yet 'twas in Germany, and among strangers; butI found a strange, secret and unaccountable sadness upon my spirits,to see this acting in my own native country. It grieved me to theheart, even in the rout of our enemies, to see the slaughter of them;and even in the fight, to hear a man cry for quarter in English, movedme to a compassion which I had never been used to; nay, sometimesit looked to me as if some of my own men had been beaten; and whenI heard a soldier cry, "O God, I am shot," I looked behind me to seewhich of my own troop was fallen. Here I saw myself at the cutting ofthe throats of my friends; and indeed some of my near relations. Myold comrades and fellow-soldiers in Germany were some with us, someagainst us, as their opinions happened to differ in religion. For mypart, I confess I had not much religion in me, at that time; but Ithought religion rightly practised on both sides would have made usall better friends; and therefore sometimes I began to think, thatboth the bishops of our side, and the preachers on theirs, madereligion rather the pretence than the cause of the war. And from thosethoughts I vigorously argued it at the council of war against marchingto Brentford, while the address for a treaty of peace from theParliament was in hand: for I was for taking the Parliament by thehandle which they had given us, and entering into a negotiation, withthe advantage of its being at their own request.

  I thought the king had now in his hands an opportunity to make anhonourable peace; for this battle of Edgehill, as much as they boastedof the victory to hearten up their friends, had sorely weakened theirarmy, and discouraged their party too, which in effect was worse as totheir army. The horse were particularly in an ill case, and the footgreatly diminished, and the remainder very sickly; but besides this,the Parliament were greatly alarmed at the progress we made afterward;and still fearing the king's surprising them, had sent for the Earl ofEssex to London, to defend them; by which the country was, as it were,defeated and abandoned, and left to be plundered; our parties overrunall places at pleasure. All this while I considered, that whatever thesoldiers of fortune meant by the war, our desires were to suppressthe exorbitant power of a party, to establish our king in his justand legal rights; but not with a design to destroy the constitution ofgovernment, and the being of Parliament. And therefore I thought nowwas the time for peace, and there were a great many worthy gentlemenin the army of my mind; and, had our master had ears to hear us, thewar might have had an end here.

  This address for peace was received by the king at Maidenhead, whitherthis army was now advanced, and his Majesty returned answer by SirPeter Killegrew, that he desired nothing more, and would not bewanting on his part. Upon this the Parliament name commissioners, andhis Majesty excepting against Sir John Evelyn, they left him out,and sent others; and desired the king to appoint his residence nearLondon, where the commissioners might wait upon him. Accordingly theking appointed Windsor for the place of treaty, and desired thetreaty might be hastened. And thus all things looked with a favourableaspect, when one unlucky action knocked it all on the head, and filledboth parties with more implacable animosities than they had before,and all hopes of peace vanished.

  During this progress of the king's armies, we were always abroad withthe horse ravaging the country, and plundering the Roundheads. PrinceRupert, a most active vigilant party man, and I must own, fitter forsuch than for a general, was never lying still, and I seldom stayedbehind; for our regiment being very well mounted, he would always sendfor us, if he had any extraordinary design in hand.

  One time in particular he had a design upon Aylesbury, the capital ofBuckinghamshire; indeed our view at first was rather to beat theenemy out of town and demolish their works, and perhaps raise somecontributions on the rich country round it, than to garrison theplace, and keep it; for we wanted no more garrisons, being masters ofthe field.

  The prince had 2500 horse with him in this expedition, but no foot;the town had some foot raised in the country by Mr Hampden, and tworegiments of country militia, whom we made light of, but we found theystood to their tackle better than well enough. We came very early tothe town, and thought they had no notice of us; but some false brotherhad given them the alarm, and we found them all in arms, the hedgeswithout the town lined with musketeers, on that side in particularwhere they expected us, and two regiments of foot drawn up in view tosupport them, with some horse in the rear of all.

  The prince, willing, however, to do something, caused some of hishorse to alight, and serve as dragoons; and having broken a way intothe enclosures, the horse beat the foot from behind the hedges, whilethe rest who were alighted charged them in the lane which leads tothe town. Here they had cast up some works, and fired from theirlines very regularly, considering them as militia only, the governorencouraging them by his example; so that finding without some footthere would be no good to be done, we gave it over, and drew off; andso Aylesbury escaped a scouring for that time.

  I cannot deny but these flying parties of horse committed great spoilamong the country people; and sometimes the prince gave a liberty tosome cruelties which were not at all for the king's interest; becauseit being still upon our own country, and the king's own subjects, whomin all his declarations he protested to be careful of, it seemed tocontradict all those protestations and declarations, and served toaggravate and exasperate the common people; and the king's enemiesmade all the advantages of it that was possible, by crying out oftwice as many extravagancies as were committed.

  Tis true, the king, who naturally abhorred such things, could notrestrain his men, no, nor his generals, so absolutely as he wouldhave done. The war, on his side, was very much _a la_ volunteer;many gentlemen served him at their own charge, and some paid wholeregiments themselves: sometimes also the king's affairs were straiterthan ordinary, and his men were not very well paid, and this obligedhim to wink at their excursions upon the country, though he did notapprove of them. And yet I must own, that in those parts of Englandwhere the war was hottest, there never was seen that ruin anddepopulation, murders, and barbarities, which I have seen even amongProtestant armies abroad, in Germany and other foreign parts of theworld. And if the Parliament people had seen those things abroad, as Ihad, they would not have complained.

  The most I have seen was plundering the towns for provisions, drinkingup their beer, and turning our horses into their fields, or stacksof corn; and sometimes the soldiers would be a little rude with thewenches; but alas! what was this to Count Tilly's ravages in Saxony?Or what
was our taking of Leicester by storm, where they cried out ofour barbarities, to the sacking of New Brandenburg, or the taking ofMagdeburg? In Leicester, of 7000 or 8000 people in the town, 300 werekilled; in Magdeburg, of 25,000 scarce 2700 were left, and the wholetown burnt to ashes. I myself have seen seventeen or eighteen villageson fire in a day, and the people driven away from their dwellings,like herds of cattle. I do not instance these greater barbarities tojustify lesser actions, which are nevertheless irregular; but I dosay, that circumstances considered, this war was managed with asmuch humanity on both sides as could be expected, especially alsoconsidering the animosity of parties.

  But to return to the prince: he had not always the same success inthese enterprises, for sometimes we came short home. And I cannot omitone pleasant adventure which happened to a party of ours, in one ofthese excursions into Buckinghamshire. The major of our regiment wassoundly beaten by a party, which, as I may say, was led by a woman;and, if I had not rescued him, I know not but he had been takenprisoner by a woman. It seems our men had besieged some fortifiedhouse about Oxfordshire, towards Thame, and the house being defendedby the lady in her husband's absence, she had yielded the house upon acapitulation; one of the articles of which was, to march out withall her servants, soldiers, and goods, and to be conveyed to Thame.Whether she thought to have gone no farther, or that she reckonedherself safe there, I know not; but my major, with two troops ofhorse, meets with this lady and her party, about five miles fromThame, as we were coming back from our defeated attack of Aylesbury.We reckoned ourselves in an enemy's country, and had lived a little atlarge, or at discretion, as 'tis called abroad; and these two troops,with the major, were returning to our detachment from a littlevillage, where, at the farmer's house, they had met with some liquor,and truly some of his men were so drunk they could but just sit upontheir horses. The major himself was not much better, and the wholebody were but in a sorry condition to fight. Upon the road they meetthis party; the lady having no design of fighting, and being, as shethought, under the protection of the articles, sounds a parley, anddesired to speak with the officer. The major, as drunk as he was,could tell her, that by the articles she was to be assured no fartherthan Thame, and being now five miles beyond it, she was a fair enemy,and therefore demanded to render themselves prisoners. The ladyseemed surprised, but being sensible she was in the wrong, offeredto compound for her goods, and would have given him L300, and I thinkseven or eight horses. The major would certainly have taken it, if hehad not been drunk; but he refused it, and gave threatening words toher, blustering in language which he thought proper to fright a woman,viz., that he would cut them all to pieces, and give no quarter, andthe like.

  The lady, who had been more used to the smell of powder than heimagined, called some of her servants to her, and, consulting withthem what to do, they all unanimously encouraged her to let themfight; told her it was plain that the commander was drunk, and allthat were with him were rather worse than he, and hardly able to sittheir horses; and that therefore one bold charge would put them allinto confusion. In a word, she consented, and, as she was a woman,they desired her to secure herself among the waggons; but she refused,and told them bravely she would take her fate with them. In short, sheboldly bade my major defiance, and that he might do his worst, sinceshe had offered him fair, and he had refused it; her mind was alterednow, and she would give him nothing, and bade his officer thatparleyed longer with her be gone; so the parley ended. After this shegave him fair leave to go back to his men; but before he could tellhis tale to them she was at his heels with all her men, and gave himsuch a home charge as put his men into disorder, and, being too drunkto rally, they were knocked down before they knew what to do withthemselves, and in a few minutes more they took to a plain flight.But what was still worse, the men, being some of them very drunk, whenthey came to run for their lives fell over one another, and tumbledover their horses, and made such work that a troop of women might havebeaten them all. In this pickle, with the enemy at his heels, Icame in with him, hearing the noise. When I appeared the pursuersretreated, and, seeing what a condition my people were in, and notknowing the strength of the enemy, I contented myself with bringingthem off without pursuing the other; nor could I ever hear positivelywho this female captain was. We lost seventeen or eighteen of our men,and about thirty horses; but when the particulars of the story wastold us, our major was so laughed at by the whole army, and laughedat everywhere, that he was ashamed to show himself for a week or afortnight after.

  But to return to the king: his Majesty, as I observed, was atMaidenhead addressed by the Parliament for peace, and Windsorbeing appointed for the place of treaty, the van of his army lay atColebrook. In the meantime, whether it were true or only a pretence,but it was reported the Parliament general had sent a body of histroops, with a train of artillery, to Hammersmith, in order to fallupon some part of our army, or to take some advanced post, which wasto the prejudice of our men; whereupon the king ordered the army tomarch, and, by the favour of a thick mist, came within half a mile ofBrentford before he was discovered. There were two regiments of foot,and about 600 horse into the town, of the enemy's best troops; thesetaking the alarm, posted themselves on the bridge at the west end ofthe town. The king attacked them with a select detachment of his bestinfantry, and they defended themselves with incredible obstinacy. Imust own I never saw raw men, for they could not have been in armsabove four months, act like them in my life. In short, there was noforcing these men, for, though two whole brigades of our foot, backedby our horse, made five several attacks upon them they could not breakthem, and we lost a great many brave men in that action. At last,seeing the obstinacy of these men, a party of horse was ordered to goround from Osterley; and, entering the town on the north side, where,though the horse made some resistance, it was not considerable, thetown was presently taken. I led my regiment through an enclosure, andcame into the town nearer to the bridge than the rest, by which meansI got first into the town; but I had this loss by my expedition, thatthe foot charged me before the body was come up, and poured in theirshot very furiously. My men were but in an ill case, and would nothave stood much longer, if the rest of the horse coming up the lanehad not found them other employment. When the horse were thus entered,they immediately dispersed the enemy's horse, who fled away towardsLondon, and falling in sword in hand upon the rear of the foot, whowere engaged at the bridge, they were all cut in pieces, except about200, who, scorning to ask quarter, desperately threw themselves intothe river of Thames, where they were most of them drowned.

  The Parliament and their party made a great outcry at thisattempt--that it was base and treacherous while in a treaty of peace;and that the king, having amused them with hearkening to a treaty,designed to have seized upon their train of artillery first, and,after that, to have surprised both the city of London and theParliament. And I have observed since, that our historians note thisaction as contrary to the laws of honour and treaties, though as therewas no cessation of arms agreed on, nothing is more contrary to thelaws of war than to suggest it.

  That it was a very unhappy thing to the king and whole nation, as itbroke off the hopes of peace, and was the occasion of bringing theScots army in upon us, I readily acknowledge, but that therewas anything dishonourable in it, I cannot allow. For though theParliament had addressed to the king for peace, and such steps weretaken in it as before, yet, as I have said, there was no proposalsmade on either side for a cessation of arms, and all the world mustallow, that in such cases the war goes on in the field, while thepeace goes on in the cabinet. And if the war goes on, admit the kinghad designed to surprise the city or Parliament, or all of them, ithad been no more than the custom of war allows, and what they wouldhave done by him if they could. The treaty of Westphalia, or peace ofMunster, which ended the bloody wars of Germany, was a precedent forthis. That treaty was actually negotiating seven years, and yet thewar went on with all the vigour and rancour imaginable, even to thelast. Nay, the very time after the conclusion of i
t, but before thenews could be brought to the army, did he that was afterwards Kingof Sweden, Carolus Gustavus, take the city of Prague by surprise, andtherein an inestimable booty. Besides, all the wars of Europe are fullof examples of this kind, and therefore I cannot see any reason toblame the king for this action as to the fairness of it. Indeed, asto the policy of it, I can say little; but the case was this. The kinghad a gallant army, flushed with success, and things hitherto had goneon very prosperously, both with his own army and elsewhere; he hadabove 35,000 men in his own army, including his garrison left atBanbury, Shrewsbury, Worcester, Oxford, Wallingford, Abingdon,Reading, and places adjacent. On the other hand, the Parliament armycame back to London in but a very sorry condition;[1] for what withtheir loss in their victory, as they called it, at Edgehill, theirsickness, and a hasty march to London, they were very much diminished,though at London they soon recruited them again. And this prosperityof the king's affairs might encourage him to strike this blow,thinking to bring the Parliament to the better terms by theapprehensions of the superior strength of the king's forces.

  But, however it was, the success did not equally answer the king'sexpectation. The vigorous defence the troops posted at Brentfordmade as above, gave the Earl of Essex opportunity, with extraordinaryapplication, to draw his forces out to Turnham Green. And theexceeding alacrity of the enemy was such, that their whole armyappeared with them, making together an army of 24,000 men, drawn upin view of our forces by eight o'clock the next morning. The cityregiments were placed between the regular troops, and all togetheroffered us battle, but we were not in a condition to accept it. Theking indeed was sometimes of the mind to charge them, and once ortwice ordered parties to advance to begin to skirmish, but upon betteradvice altered his mind, and indeed it was the wisest counsel to deferthe fighting at that time. The Parliament generals were as unfixed intheir resolutions, on the other side, as the king; sometimes they sentout parties, and then called them back again. One strong party of near3000 men marched off towards Acton, with orders to amuse us on thatside, but were countermanded. Indeed, I was of the opinion we mighthave ventured the battle, for though the Parliament's army were morenumerous, yet the city trained bands, which made up 4000 of theirfoot, were not much esteemed, and the king was a great deal strongerin horse than they. But the main reason that hindered the engagement,was want of ammunition, which the king having duly weighed, he causedthe carriages and cannon to draw off first, and then the foot, thehorse continuing to force the enemy till all was clear gone; and thenwe drew off too and marched to Kingston, and the next day to Reading.

  Now the king saw his mistake in not continuing his march for London,instead of facing about to fight the enemy at Edgehill. And all thehonour we had gained in so many successful enterprises lay buried inthis shameful retreat from an army of citizens' wives; for truly thatappearance at Turnham Green was gay, but not great. There was as manylookers-on as actors. The crowds of ladies, apprentices, and mob wasso great, that when the parties of our army advanced, and as theythought, to charge, the coaches, horsemen, and crowd, that clutteredaway to be out of harm's way, looked little better than a rout. And Iwas persuaded a good home charge from our horse would have sent theirwhole army after them. But so it was, that this crowd of an army wasto triumph over us, and they did it, for all the kingdom was carefullyinformed how their dreadful looks had frightened us away.

  Upon our retreat, the Parliament resent this attack, which they calltreacherous, and vote no accommodation; but they considered of itafterwards, and sent six commissioners to the king with propositions.But the change of the scene of action changed the terms of peace, andnow they made terms like conquerors, petition him to desert his army,and return to the Parliament, and the like. Had his Majesty, at thehead of his army, with the full reputation they had before, and in theebb of their affairs, rested at Windsor, and commenced a treaty, theyhad certainly made more reasonable proposals; but now the scabbardseemed to be thrown away on both sides.

  The rest of the winter was spent in strengthening parties and places,also in fruitless treaties of peace, messages, remonstrances, andpaper war on both sides, and no action remarkable happened anywherethat I remember. Yet the king gained ground everywhere, and his forcesin the north increased under the Earl of Newcastle; also my LordGoring, then only called Colonel Goring, arrived from Holland,bringing three ships laden with arms and ammunition, and notice thatthe queen was following with more. Goring brought 4000 barrels ofgunpowder, and 20,000 small arms; all which came very seasonably, forthe king was in great want of them, especially the powder. Upon thisrecruit the Earl of Newcastle draws down to York, and being above16,000 strong, made Sir Thomas Fairfax give ground, and retreat toHull.

  Whoever lay still, Prince Rupert was always abroad, and I chose to goout with his Highness as often as I had opportunity, for hitherto hewas always successful. About this time the prince being at Oxford, Igave him intelligence of a party of the enemy who lived a little atlarge, too much for good soldiers, about Cirencester. The prince, gladof the news, resolved to attack them, and though it was a wet season,and the ways exceeding bad, being in February, yet we marched allnight in the dark, which occasioned the loss of some horses andmen too, in sloughs and holes, which the darkness of the night hadsuffered them to fall into. We were a very strong party, being about3000 horse and dragoons, and coming to Cirencester very early in themorning, to our great satisfaction the enemy were perfectly surprised,not having the least notice of our march, which answered our end moreways than one. However, the Earl of Stamford's regiment made someresistance; but the town having no works to defend it, saving a slightbreastwork at the entrance of the road, with a turnpike, our dragoonsalighted, and forcing their way over the bellies of Stamford's foot,they beat them from their defence, and followed them at their heelsinto the town. Stamford's regiment was entirely cut in pieces, andseveral others, to the number of about 800 men, and the town enteredwithout any other resistance. We took 1200 prisoners, 3000 arms, andthe county magazine, which at that time was considerable; for therewas about 120 barrels of powder, and all things in proportion.

  I received the first hurt I got in this war at this action, for havingfollowed the dragoons and brought my regiment within the barricadowhich they had gained, a musket bullet struck my horse just in thehead, and that so effectually that he fell down as dead as a stone allat once. The fall plunged me into a puddle of water and daubed me; andmy man having brought me another horse and cleaned me a little, I wasjust getting up, when another bullet struck me on my left hand, whichI had just clapped on the horse's main to lift myself into the saddle.The blow broke one of my fingers, and bruised my hand very much; andit proved a very painful hurt to me. For the present I did notmuch concern myself about it, but made my man tie it up close in myhandkerchief, and led up my men to the market-place, where we hada very smart brush with some musketeers who were posted in thechurchyard; but our dragoons soon beat them out there, and the wholetown was then our own. We made no stay here, but marched back withall our booty to Oxford, for we knew the enemy were very strong atGloucester, and that way.

  Much about the same time, the Earl of Northampton, with a strongparty, set upon Lichfield, and took the town, but could not take theClose; but they beat a body of 4000 men coming to the relief of thetown, under Sir John Gell, of Derbyshire, and Sir William Brereton, ofCheshire, and killing 600 of them, dispersed the rest.

  Our second campaign now began to open; the king marched from Oxfordto relieve Reading, which was besieged by the Parliament forces;but General Fielding, Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Arthur Ashton beingwounded, surrendered to Essex before the king could come up; forwhich he was tried by martial law, and condemned to die, but the kingforbore to execute the sentence. This was the first town we had lostin the war, for still the success of the king's affairs was veryencouraging. This bad news, however, was overbalanced by an accountbrought the king at the same time, by an express from York, that thequeen had landed in the north, and had brought over a gr
eat magazineof arms and ammunition, besides some men. Some time after this herMajesty, marching southward to meet the king, joined the army nearEdgehill, where the first battle was fought. She brought the king 3000foot, 1500 horse and dragoons, six pieces of cannon, 1500 barrels ofpowder, 12,000 small arms.

  During this prosperity of the king's affairs his armies increasedmightily in the western counties also. Sir William Waller, indeed,commanded for the Parliament in those parts too, and particularly inDorsetshire, Hampshire, and Berkshire, where he carried on theircause but too fast; but farther west, Sir Nicholas Slanning, Sir RalphHopton, and Sir Bevil Grenvile had extended the king's quarters fromCornwall through Devonshire, and into Somersetshire, where theytook Exeter, Barnstaple, and Bideford; and the first of these theyfortified very well, making it a place of arms for the west, andafterwards it was the residence of the queen.

  At last, the famous Sir William Waller and the king's forces met, andcame to a pitched battle, where Sir William lost all his honour again.This was at Roundway Down in Wiltshire. Waller had engaged our Cornisharmy at Lansdown, and in a very obstinate fight had the better ofthem, and made them retreat to the Devizes. Sir William Hopton,however, having a good body of foot untouched, sent expresses andmessengers one in the neck of another to the king for some horse, andthe king being in great concern for that army, who were composed ofthe flower of the Cornish men, commanded me to march with all possiblesecrecy, as well as expedition, with 1200 horse and dragoons fromOxford, to join them. We set out in the depth of the night, to avoid,if possible, any intelligence being given of our route, and soonjoined with the Cornish army, when it was as soon resolved to givebattle to Waller; and, give him his due, he was as forward to fight aswe. As it is easy to meet when both sides are willing to be found, SirWilliam Waller met us upon Roundway Down, where we had a fair field onboth sides, and room enough to draw up our horse. In a word, therewas little ceremony to the work; the armies joined, and we charged hishorse with so much resolution, that they quickly fled, and quittedthe field; for we over-matched him in horse, and this was the entiredestruction of their army. For the infantry, which outnumbered oursby 1500, were now at our mercy; some faint resistance they made, justenough to give us occasion to break into their ranks with our horse,where we gave time to our foot to defeat others that stood to theirwork, upon which they began to disband, and run every way they could;but our horse having surrounded them, we made a fearful havoc of them.

  We lost not about 200 men in this action; Waller lost about 4000killed and taken, and as many dispersed that never returned to theircolours. Those of foot that escaped got into Bristol, and Waller, withthe poor remains of his routed regiments, got to London; so that itis plain some ran east, and some ran west, that is to say, they fledevery way they could.

  My going with this detachment prevented my being at the siege ofBristol, which Prince Rupert attacked much about the same time, and itsurrendered in three days. The Parliament questioned ColonelNathaniel Fiennes, the governor, and had him tried as a coward by acourt-martial, and condemned to die, but suspended the execution also,as the king did the governor of Reading. I have often heard PrinceRupert say, they did Colonel Fiennes wrong in that affair; and that ifthe colonel would have summoned him, he would have demanded a passportof the Parliament, and have come up and convinced the court thatColonel Fiennes had not misbehaved himself, and that he had not asufficient garrison to defend a city of that extent; having not above1200 men in the town, excepting some of Waller's runaways, most ofwhom were unfit for service, and without arms; and that the citizensin general being disaffected to him, and ready on the first occasionto open the gates to the king's forces, it was impossible for him tohave kept the city. "And when I had farther informed them," said theprince, "of the measures I had taken for a general assault the nextday, I am confident I should have convinced them that I had taken thecity by storm, if he had not surrendered."

  The king's affairs were now in a very good posture, and three armiesin the north, west, and in the centre, counted in the musters about70,000 men besides small garrisons and parties abroad. Several of thelords, and more of the commons, began to fall off from the Parliament,and make their peace with the king; and the affairs of the Parliamentbegan to look very ill. The city of London was their inexhaustiblesupport and magazine, both for men, money, and all things necessary;and whenever their army was out of order, the clergy of their partyin but one Sunday or two, would preach the young citizens out of theirshops, the labourers from their masters, into the army, and recruitthem on a sudden. And all this was still owing to the omission I firstobserved, of not marching to London, when it might have been so easilyeffected.

  We had now another, or a fairer opportunity, than before, but as illuse was made of it. The king, as I have observed, was in a very goodposture; he had three large armies roving at large over the kingdom.The Cornish army, victorious and numerous, had beaten Waller, securedand fortified Exeter, which the queen had made her residence, andwas there delivered of a daughter, the Princess Henrietta Maria,afterwards Duchess of Orleans, and mother of the Duchess Dowager ofSavoy, commonly known in the French style by the title of Madam Royal.They had secured Salisbury, Sherborne Castle, Weymouth, Winchester,and Basing-house, and commanded the whole country, except Bridgewaterand Taunton, Plymouth and Lynn; all which places they held blockedup. The king was also entirely master of all Wales, Monmouthshire,Cheshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Oxfordshire,Berkshire, and all the towns from Windsor up the Thames toCirencester, except Reading and Henley; and of the whole Severn,except Gloucester.

  The Earl of Newcastle had garrisons in every strong place in thenorth, from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Boston in Lincolnshire, andNewark-upon-Trent, Hull only excepted, whither the Lord Fairfax andhis son Sir Thomas were retreated, their troops being routed andbroken, Sir Thomas Fairfax his baggage, with his lady and servantstaken prisoners, and himself hardly scaping.

  And now a great council of war was held in the king's quarters, whatenterprise to go upon; and it happened to be the very same day whenthe Parliament were in a serious debate what should become of them,and whose help they should seek. And indeed they had cause for it; andhad our counsels been as ready and well-grounded as theirs, we had putan end to the war in a month's time.

  In this council the king proposed the marching to London, to put anend to the Parliament and encourage his friends and loyal subjects inKent, who were ready to rise for him; and showed us letters fromthe Earl of Newcastle, wherein he offered to join his Majesty with adetachment of 4000 horse, and 8000 foot, if his Majesty thought fitto march southward, and yet leave forces sufficient to guard thenorth from any invasion. I confess, when I saw the scheme the king hadhimself drawn for this attempt, I felt an unusual satisfaction in mymind, from the hopes that he might bring this war to some tolerableend; for I professed myself on all occasions heartily weary withfighting with friends, brothers, neighbours, and acquaintance, and Imade no question but this motion of the king's would effectually bringthe Parliament to reason.

  All men seemed to like the enterprise but the Earl of Worcester, who,on particular views for securing the country behind, as he called it,proposed the taking in the town of Gloucester and Hereford first. Hemade a long speech of the danger of leaving Massey, an active boldfellow, with a strong party in the heart of all the king's quarters,ready on all occasions to sally out and surprise the neighbouringgarrisons, as he had done Sudley Castle and others; and of the easeand freedom to all those western parts to have them fully clearedof the enemy. Interest presently backs this advice, and all thosegentlemen whose estates lay that way, or whose friends lived aboutWorcester, Shrewsbury, Bridgnorth, or the borders, and who, as theysaid, had heard the frequent wishes of the country to have the city ofGloucester reduced, fell in with this advice, alleging the consequenceit was for the commerce of the country to have the navigation of theSevern free, which was only interrupted by this one town from the seaup to Shrewsbury, &c.

  I opposed th
is, and so did several others. Prince Rupert wasvehemently against it; and we both offered, with the troops of thecountry, to keep Gloucester blocked up during the king's march forLondon, so that Massey should not be able to stir.

  This proposal made the Earl of Worcester's party more eager for thesiege than before, for they had no mind to a blockade which wouldleave the country to maintain the troops all the summer; and of allmen the prince did not please them, for, he having no extraordinarycharacter for discipline, his company was not much desired even byour friends. Thus, in an ill hour, 'twas resolved to sit down beforeGloucester. The king had a gallant army of 28,000 men whereof 11,000horse, the finest body of gentlemen that ever I saw together in mylife; their horses without comparison, and their equipages the finestand the best in the world, and their persons Englishmen, which, Ithink, is enough to say of them.

  According to the resolution taken in the council of war, the armymarched westward, and sat down before Gloucester the beginning ofAugust. There we spent a month to the least purpose that ever armydid. Our men received frequent affronts from the desperate salliesof an inconsiderable enemy. I cannot forbear reflecting on themisfortunes of this siege. Our men were strangely dispirited in allthe assaults they gave upon the place; there was something looked likedisaster and mismanagement, and our men went on with an ill will andno resolution. The king despised the place, and thinking to carry itsword in hand, made no regular approaches, and the garrison, beingdesperate, made therefore the greater slaughter. In this work ourhorse, who were so numerous and so fine, had no employment. Twothousand horse had been enough for this business, and the enemy had nogarrison or party within forty miles of us, so that we had nothing todo but look on with infinite regret upon the losses of our foot.

  The enemy made frequent and desperate sallies, in one of which I hadmy share. I was posted upon a parade, or place of arms, with part ofmy regiment, and part of Colonel Goring's regiment of horse, in orderto support a body of foot, who were ordered to storm the point of abreastwork which the enemy had raised to defend one of the avenues tothe town. The foot were beat off with loss, as they always were; andMassey, the governor, not content to have beaten them from his works,sallies out with near 400 men, and falling in upon the foot as theywere rallying under the cover of our horse, we put ourselves in thebest posture we could to receive them. As Massey did not expect, Isuppose, to engage with any horse, he had no pikes with him, whichencouraged us to treat him the more rudely; but as to desperate mendanger is no danger, when he found he must clear his hands of us,before he could despatch the foot, he faces up to us, fires but onevolley of his small shot, and fell to battering us with the stocks oftheir muskets in such a manner that one would have thought they hadbeen madmen.

  We at first despised this way of clubbing us, and charging throughthem, laid a great many of them upon the ground, and in repeating ourcharge, trampled more of them under our horses' feet; and wheelingthus continually, beat them off from our foot, who were just upon thepoint of disbanding. Upon this they charged us again with their fire,and at one volley killed thirty-three or thirty-four men and horses;and had they had pikes with them, I know not what we should have donewith them. But at last charging through them again, we divided them;one part of them being hemmed in between us and our own foot, werecut in pieces to a man; the rest as I understood afterwards, retreatedinto the town, having lost 300 of their men.

  In this last charge I received a rude blow from a stout fellow onfoot with the butt end of his musket which perfectly stunned me, andfetched me off from my horse; and had not some near me took care ofme, I had been trod to death by our own men. But the fellow beingimmediately killed, and my friends finding me alive, had taken me up,and carried me off some distance, where I came to myself again aftersome time, but knew little of what I did or said that night. This wasthe reason why I say I afterwards understood the enemy retreated; forI saw no more what they did then, nor indeed was I well of this blowfor all the rest of the summer, but had frequent pains in my head,dizzinesses and swimming, that gave me some fears the blow hadinjured the skull; but it wore off again, nor did it at all hinder myattending my charge.

  This action, I think, was the only one that looked like a defeat giventhe enemy at this siege. We killed them near 300 men, as I have said,and lost about sixty of our troopers.

  All this time, while the king was harassing and weakening the bestarmy he ever saw together during the whole war, the Parliamentgenerals, or rather preachers, were recruiting theirs; for thepreachers were better than drummers to raise volunteers, zealouslyexhorting the London dames to part with their husbands, and the cityto send some of their trained bands to join the army for the relief ofGloucester; and now they began to advance towards us.

  The king hearing of the advance of Essex's army, who by this time wascome to Aylesbury, had summoned what forces he had within call, tojoin him; and accordingly he received 3000 foot from Somersetshire;and having battered the town for thirty-six hours, and made a fairbreach, resolves upon an assault, if possible, to carry the townbefore the enemy came up. The assault was begun about seven in theevening, and the men boldly mounted the breach; but after a veryobstinate and bloody dispute, were beaten out again by the besiegedwith great loss.

  Being thus often repulsed, and the Earl of Essex's army approaching,the king calls a council of war, and proposed to fight Essex's army.The officers of the horse were for fighting; and without doubt we weresuperior to him both in number and goodness of our horse, but the footwere not in an equal condition; and the colonels of foot representingto the king the weakness of their regiments, and how their men hadbeen balked and disheartened at this cursed siege, the graver counselprevailed, and it was resolved to raise the siege, and retreat towardsBristol, till the army was recruited. Pursuant to this resolution, the5th of September, the king, having before sent away his heavy cannonand baggage, raised the siege, and marched to Berkeley Castle. TheEarl of Essex came the next day to Birdlip Hills; and understandingby messengers from Colonel Massey, that the siege was raised, sendsa recruit of 2500 men into the city, and followed us himself with agreat body of horse.

  This body of horse showed themselves to us once in a large field fitto have entertained them in; and our scouts having assured us theywere not above 4000, and had no foot with them, the king ordereda detachment of about the same number to face them. I desired hisMajesty to let us have two regiments of dragoons with us, which wasthen 800 men in a regiment, lest there might be some dragoons amongthe enemy; which the king granted, and accordingly we marched, anddrew up in view of them. They stood their ground, having, as theysupposed, some advantage of the manner they were posted in, andexpected we would charge them. The king, who did us the honour tocommand this party, finding they would not stir, calls me to him, andordered me with the dragoons, and my own regiment, to take a circuitround by a village to a certain lane, where in their retreat they musthave passed, and which opened to a small common on the flank; withorders, if they engaged, to advance and charge them in the flank. Imarched immediately; but though the country about there was almost allenclosures, yet their scouts were so vigilant, that they discoveredme, and gave notice to the body; upon which their whole party moved tothe left, as if they intended to charge me, before the king withhis body of horse could come. But the king was too vigilant to becircumvented so; and therefore his Majesty perceiving this, sends awaythree regiments of horse to second me, and a messenger before them, toorder me to halt, and expect the enemy, for that he would follow withthe whole body.

  But before this order reached me, I had halted for some time; forfinding myself discovered, and not judging it safe to be entirelycut off from the main body, I stopped at the village, and causing mydragoons to alight, and line a thick hedge on my left, I drew up myhorse just at the entrance into the village opening to a common.The enemy came up on the trot to charge me, but were saluted with aterrible fire from the dragoons out of the hedge, which killed themnear 100 men. This being a perfect surprise to them, t
hey halted,and just at that moment they received orders from their main bodyto retreat; the king at the same time appearing upon some heights intheir rear, which obliged them to think of retreating, or coming to ageneral battle, which was none of their design.

  I had no occasion to follow them, not being in a condition to attackthe whole body; but the dragoons coming out into the common, gave themanother volley at a distance, which reached them effectually, for itkilled about twenty of them, and wounded more; but they drew off, andnever fired a shot at us, fearing to be enclosed between two parties,and so marched away to their general's quarters, leaving ten or twelvemore of their fellows killed, and about 180 horses. Our men, after thecountry fashion, gave them a shout at parting, to let them see we knewthey were afraid of us.

  However, this relieving of Gloucester raised the spirits as well asthe reputation of the Parliament forces, and was a great defeat to us;and from this time things began to look with a melancholy aspect, forthe prosperous condition of the king's affairs began to decline. Theopportunities he had let slip were never to be recovered, and theParliament, in their former extremity, having voted an invitationto the Scots to march to their assistance, we had now new enemies toencounter; and, indeed, there began the ruin of his Majesty's affairs,for the Earl of Newcastle, not able to defend himself against theScots on his rear, the Earl of Manchester in his front, and Sir ThomasFairfax on his flank, was everywhere routed and defeated, and hisforces obliged to quit the field to the enemy.

  About this time it was that we first began to hear of one OliverCromwell, who, like a little cloud, rose out of the east, and spreadfirst into the north, till it shed down a flood that overwhelmed thethree kingdoms.

  He first was a private captain of horse, but now commanded a regimentwhom he armed _cap-a-pie a la cuirassier_; and, joining with the Earlof Manchester, the first action we heard of him that made him anythingfamous was about Grantham, where, with only his own regiment, hedefeated twenty-four troops of horse and dragoons of the king'sforces; then, at Gainsborough, with two regiments, his own of horseand one of dragoons, where he defeated near 3000 of the Earl ofNewcastle's men, killed Lieutenant-General Cavendish, brother to theEarl of Devonshire, who commanded them, and relieved Gainsborough; andthough the whole army came in to the rescue, he made good his retreatto Lincoln with little loss; and the next week he defeated Sir JohnHenderson at Winceby, near Horncastle, with sixteen regiments of horseand dragoons, himself having not half that number; killed the LordWiddrington, Sir Ingram Hopton, and several gentlemen of quality. Thusthis firebrand of war began to blaze, and he soon grew a terror tothe north; for victory attended him like a page of honour, and he wasscarce ever known to be beaten during the whole war.

  Now we began to reflect again on the misfortune of our master'scounsels. Had we marched to London, instead of besieging Gloucester,we had finished the war with a stroke. The Parliament's army was ina most despicable condition, and had never been recruited, had we notgiven them a month's time, which we lingered away at this fatal townof Gloucester. But 'twas too late to reflect; we were a disheartenedarmy, but we were not beaten yet, nor broken. We had a large countryto recruit in, and we lost no time but raised men apace. In themeantime his Majesty, after a short stay at Bristol, makes back againtowards Oxford with a part of the foot and all the horse.

  At Cirencester we had a brush again with Essex; that town owed usa shrewd turn for having handled them coarsely enough before, whenPrince Rupert seized the county magazine. I happened to be in the townthat night with Sir Nicholas Crisp, whose regiment of horse quarteredthere with Colonel Spencer and some foot; my own regiment was gonebefore to Oxford. About ten at night, a party of Essex's men beat upour quarters by surprise, just as we had served them before. They fellin with us, just as people were going to bed, and having beaten theout-guards, were gotten into the middle of the town before our mencould get on horseback. Sir Nicholas Crisp, hearing the alarm, getsup, and with some of his clothes on, and some off, comes into mychamber. "We are all undone," says he, "the Roundheads are upon us."We had but little time to consult, but being in one of the principalinns in the town, we presently ordered the gates of the inn to beshut, and sent to all the inns where our men were quartered to do thelike, with orders, if they had any back-doors, or ways to get out, tocome to us. By this means, however, we got so much time as to get onhorseback, and so many of our men came to us by back ways, that we hadnear 300 horse in the yards and places behind the house. And now webegan to think of breaking out by a lane which led from the back sideof the inn, but a new accident determined us another, though a worseway.

  The enemy being entered, and our men cooped up in the yards of theinns, Colonel Spencer, the other colonel, whose regiment of horse layalso in the town, had got on horseback before us, and engaged withthe enemy, but being overpowered, retreated fighting, and sends to SirNicholas Crisp for help. Sir Nicholas, moved to see the distress ofhis friend, turning to me, says he, "What can we do for him?" I toldhim I thought 'twas time to help him, if possible; upon which, openingthe inn gates, we sallied out in very good order, about 300 horse.And several of the troops from other parts of the town joining us, werecovered Colonel Spencer, and charging home, beat back the enemy totheir main body. But finding their foot drawn up in the churchyard,and several detachments moving to charge us, we retreated in as goodorder as we could. They did not think fit to pursue us, but they tookall the carriages which were under the convoy of this party, and ladenwith provisions and ammunition, and above 500 of our horse, the footshifted away as well as they could. Thus we made off in a shatteredcondition towards Farringdon, and so to Oxford, and I was very glad myregiment was not there.

  We had small rest at Oxford, or indeed anywhere else; for the king wasmarched from thence, and we followed him. I was something uneasy at myabsence from my regiment, and did not know how the king might resentit, which caused me to ride after them with all expedition. But thearmies were engaged that very day at Newbury, and I came in too late.I had not behaved myself so as to be suspected of a wilful shunningthe action; but a colonel of a regiment ought to avoid absencefrom his regiment in time of fight, be the excuse never so just, ascarefully as he would a surprise in his quarters. The truth is, 'twasan error of my own, and owing to two day's stay I made at the Bath,where I met with some ladies who were my relations. And this is farfrom being an excuse; for if the king had been a Gustavus Adolphus, Ihad certainly received a check for it.

  This fight was very obstinate, and could our horse have come to actionas freely as the foot, the Parliament army had suffered much more; forwe had here a much better body of horse than they, and we never failedbeating them where the weight of the work lay upon the horse.

  Here the city train-bands, of which there was two regiments, and whomwe used to despise, fought very well. They lost one of their colonels,and several officers in the action; and I heard our men say, theybehaved themselves as well as any forces the Parliament had.

  The Parliament cried victory here too, as they always did; and indeedwhere the foot were concerned they had some advantage; but our horsedefeated them evidently. The king drew up his army in battalia, inperson, and faced them all the next day, inviting them to renew thefight; but they had no stomach to come on again.

  It was a kind of a hedge fight, for neither army was drawn out in thefield; if it had, 'twould never have held from six in the morning toten at night. But they fought for advantages; sometimes one side hadthe better, sometimes another. They fought twice through the town, inat one end, and out at the other; and in the hedges and lanes, withexceeding fury. The king lost the most men, his foot having sufferedfor want of the succour of their horse, who on two several occasionscould not come at them. But the Parliament foot suffered also, and tworegiments were entirely cut in pieces, and the king kept the field.

  Essex, the Parliament general, had the pillage of the dead, and leftus to bury them; for while we stood all day to our arms, having giventhem a fair field to fight us in, their camp rabbl
e stripped the deadbodies, and they not daring to venture a second engagement with us,marched away towards London.

  The king lost in this action the Earls of Carnarvon and Sunderland,the Lord Falkland, a French marquis and some very gallant officers,and about 1200 men. The Earl of Carnarvon was brought into an inn inNewbury, where the king came to see him. He had just life enoughto speak to his Majesty, and died in his presence. The king wasexceedingly concerned for him, and was observed to shed tears at thesight of it. We were indeed all of us troubled for the loss of sobrave a gentleman, but the concern our royal master discovered, movedus more than ordinary. Everybody endeavoured to have the king outof the room, but he would not stir from the bedside, till he saw allhopes of life was gone.

  The indefatigable industry of the king, his servants and friends,continually to supply and recruit his forces, and to harass andfatigue the enemy, was such, that we should still have given a goodaccount of the war had the Scots stood neuter. But bad news came everyday out of the north; as for other places, parties were always inaction. Sir William Waller and Sir Ralph Hopton beat one another byturns; and Sir Ralph had extended the king's quarters from Launcestonin Cornwall, to Farnham in Surrey, where he gave Sir William Waller arub, and drove him into the castle. But in the north, the storm grewthick, the Scots advanced to the borders, and entered England inconfederacy with the Parliament, against their king; for which theParliament requited them afterwards as they deserved.

  Had it not been for this Scotch army, the Parliament had easilybeen reduced to terms of peace; but after this they never made anyproposals fit for the king to receive. Want of success before had madethem differ among themselves. Essex and Waller could never agree; theEarl of Manchester and the Lord Willoughby differed to the highestdegree; and the king's affairs went never the worse for it. Butthis storm in the north ruined us all; for the Scots prevailed inYorkshire, and being joined with Fairfax, Manchester, and Cromwell,carried all before them; so that the king was obliged to send PrinceRupert, with a body of 4000 horse, to the assistance of the Earl ofNewcastle, where that prince finished the destruction of the king'sinterest, by the rashest and unaccountablest action in the world, ofwhich I shall speak in its place.

  Another action of the king's, though in itself no greater a cause ofoffence than the calling the Scots into the nation, gave great offencein general, and even the king's own friends disliked it; and wascarefully improved by his enemies to the disadvantage of the king, andof his cause.

  The rebels in Ireland had, ever since the bloody massacre of theProtestants, maintained a war against the English, and the Earl ofOrmond was general and governor for the king. The king, finding hisaffairs pinch him at home, sends orders to the Earl of Ormond toconsent to a cessation of arms with the rebels, and to ship overcertain of his regiments hither to his Majesty's assistance. 'Tistrue, the Irish had deserved to be very ill treated by the English;but while the Parliament pressed the king with a cruel and unnaturalwar at home, and called in an army out of Scotland to support theirquarrel with their king, I could never be convinced, that it was sucha dishonourable action for the king to suspend the correction ofhis Irish rebels till he was in a capacity to do it with safety tohimself; or to delay any farther assistance to preserve himself athome; and the troops he recalled being his own, it was no breach ofhis honour to make use of them, since he now wanted them for his ownsecurity against those who fought against him at home.

  But the king was persuaded to make one step farther, and that, Iconfess, was unpleasing to us all; and some of his best and mostfaithful servants took the freedom to speak plainly to him of it; andthat was bringing some regiments of the Irish themselves over. Thiscast, as we thought, an odium upon our whole nation, being some ofthose very wretches who had dipped their hands in the innocent bloodof the Protestants, and, with unheard-of butcheries, had massacred somany thousands of English in cool blood.

  Abundance of gentlemen forsook the king upon this score; and seeingthey could not brook the fighting in conjunction with this wickedgeneration, came into the declaration of the Parliament, and makingcomposition for their estates, lived retired lives all the rest ofwar, or went abroad.

  But as exigences and necessities oblige us to do things which at othertimes we would not do, and is, as to man, some excuse for such things;so I cannot but think the guilt and dishonour of such an action mustlie, very much of it, at least, at their doors, who drove the kingto these necessities and distresses, by calling in an army of hisown subjects whom he had not injured, but had complied with them ineverything, to make war upon him without any provocation.

  As to the quarrel between the king and his Parliament, there maysomething be said on both sides; and the king saw cause himself todisown and dislike some things he had done, which the Parliamentobjected against, such as levying money without consent of Parliament,infractions on their privileges, and the like. Here, I say, was someroom for an argument at least, and concessions on both sides wereneedful to come to a peace. But for the Scots, all their demands hadbeen answered, all their grievances had been redressed, they had madearticles with their sovereign, and he had performed those articles;their capital enemy Episcopacy was abolished; they had not one thingto demand of the king which he had not granted. And therefore they hadno more cause to take up arms against their sovereign than they hadagainst the Grand Seignior. But it must for ever lie against them asa brand of infamy, and as a reproach on their whole nation that,purchased by the Parliament's money, they sold their honesty, andrebelled against their king for hire; and it was not many yearsbefore, as I have said already, they were fully paid the wages oftheir unrighteousness, and chastised for their treachery by the verysame people whom they thus basely assisted. Then they would haveretrieved it, if it had not been too late.

  But I could not but accuse this age of injustice and partiality, whowhile they reproached the king for his cessation of arms with theIrish rebels, and not prosecuting them with the utmost severity,though he was constrained by the necessities of the war to do it,could yet, at the same time, justify the Scots taking up arms in aquarrel they had no concern in, and against their own king, with whomthey had articled and capitulated, and who had so punctually compliedwith all their demands, that they had no claim upon him, no grievancesto be redressed, no oppression to cry out of, nor could ask anythingof him which he had not granted.

  But as no action in the world is so vile, but the actors can coverwith some specious pretence, so the Scots now passing into Englandpublish a declaration to justify their assisting the Parliament. Towhich I shall only say, in my opinion, it was no justification at all;for admit the Parliament's quarrel had been never so just, it couldnot be just in them to aid them, because 'twas against their own kingtoo, to whom they had sworn allegiance, or at least had crowned him,and thereby had recognised his authority. For if maladministration be,according to Prynne's doctrine, or according to their own Buchanan, asufficient reason for subjects to take up arms against their prince,the breach of his coronation oath being supposed to dissolve the oathof allegiance, which however I cannot believe; yet this can never beextended to make it lawful, that because a king of England may,by maladministration, discharge the subjects of England from theirallegiance, that therefore the subjects of Scotland may take up armsagainst the King of Scotland, he having not infringed the compactof government as to them, and they having nothing to complain of forthemselves. Thus I thought their own arguments were against them, andHeaven seemed to concur with it; for although they did carry the causefor the English rebels, yet the most of them left their bones here inthe quarrel.

  But what signifies reason to the drum and the trumpet! The Parliamenthad the supreme argument with those men, viz., the money; and havingaccordingly advanced a good round sum, upon payment of this (for theScots would not stir a foot without it) they entered England onthe 15th of January 1643[-4], with an army of 12,000 men, under thecommand of old Leslie, now Earl of Leven, an old soldier of greatexperience, having been bred to arms from a you
th in the service ofthe Prince of Orange.

  The Scots were no sooner entered England but they were joined by allthe friends to the Parliament party in the north; and first, ColonelGrey, brother to the Lord Grey, joined them with a regiment of horse,and several out of Westmoreland and Cumberland, and so they advancedto Newcastle, which they summon to surrender. The Earl of Newcastle,who rather saw than was able to prevent this storm, was in Newcastle,and did his best to defend it; but the Scots, increased by this timeto above 20,000, lay close siege to the place, which was but meanlyfortified, and having repulsed the garrison upon several sallies,and pressing the place very close, after a siege of twelve days, orthereabouts, they enter the town sword in hand. The Earl of Newcastlegot away, and afterwards gathered what forces together he could, but[was] not strong enough to hinder the Scots from advancing to Durham,which he quitted to them, nor to hinder the conjunction of the Scotswith the forces of Fairfax, Manchester, and Cromwell. Whereupon theearl, seeing all things thus going to wreck, he sends his horseaway, and retreats with his foot into York, making all necessarypreparations for a vigorous defence there, in case he should beattacked, which he was pretty sure of, as indeed afterwards happened.York was in a very good posture of defence, the fortifications veryregular, and exceeding strong; well furnished with provisions, andhad now a garrison of 12,000 men in it. The governor under the Earlof Newcastle was Sir Thomas Glemham, a good soldier, and a gentlemanbrave enough.

  The Scots, as I have said, having taken Durham, Tynemouth Castle,and Sunderland, and being joined by Sir Thomas Fairfax, who had takenSelby, resolve, with their united strength, to besiege York; butwhen they came to view the city, and saw a plan of the works, and hadintelligence of the strength of the garrison, they sent expresses toManchester and Cromwell for help, who came on, and joined them with9000, making together about 30,000 men, rather more than less.

  Now had the Earl of Newcastle's repeated messengers convinced theking that it was absolutely necessary to send some forces to hisassistance, or else all would be lost in the north. Whereupon PrinceRupert was detached, with orders first to go into Lancashire andrelieve Lathom House, defended by the brave Countess of Derby, andthen, taking all the forces he could collect in Cheshire, Lancashire,and Yorkshire, to march to relieve York.

  The prince marched from Oxford with but three regiments of horse andone of dragoons, making in all about 2800 men. The colonels of horsewere Colonel Charles Goring, the Lord Byron, and myself; the dragoonswere of Colonel Smith. In our march we were joined by a regiment ofhorse from Banbury, one of dragoons from Bristol, and three regimentsof horse from Chester, so that when we came into Lancashire we wereabout 5000 horse and dragoons. These horse we received from Chesterwere those who, having been at the siege of Nantwich, were obliged toraise the siege by Sir Thomas Fairfax; and the foot having yielded,the horse made good their retreat to Chester, being about 2000, ofwhom three regiments now joined us. We received also 2000 foot fromWest Chester, and 2000 more out of Wales, and with this strength weentered Lancashire. We had not much time to spend, and a great deal ofwork to do.

  Bolton and Liverpool felt the first fury of our prince; at Bolton,indeed, he had some provocation, for here we were like to be beatenoff. When first the prince came to the town, he sent a summons todemand the town for the king, but received no answer but from theirguns, commanding the messenger to keep off at his peril. They hadraised some works about the town, and having by their intelligencelearnt that we had no artillery, and were only a flying party (so theycalled us), they contemned the summons, and showed themselves upontheir ramparts, ready for us. The prince was resolved to humble them,if possible, and takes up his quarters close to the town. In theevening he orders me to advance with one regiment of dragoons and myhorse, to bring them off, if occasion was, and to post myself as nearas possible I could to the lines, yet so as not to be discovered;and at the same time, having concluded what part of the works to fallupon, he draws up his men on two other sides, as if he would stormthem there; and, on a signal, I was to begin the real assault on myside with my dragoons.

  I had got so near the town with my dragoons, making them creep upontheir bellies a great way, that we could hear the soldiers talk on thewalls, when the prince, believing one regiment would be too few, sendsme word that he had ordered a regiment of foot to help, and that Ishould not discover myself till they were come up to me. This brokeour measures, for the march of this regiment was discovered by theenemy, and they took the alarm. Upon this I sent to the prince, todesire he would put off the storm for that night, and I would answerfor it the next day; but the prince was impatient, and sent orders weshould fall on as soon as the foot came up to us. The foot marched outof the way, missed us, and fell in with a road that leads to anotherpart of the town; and being not able to find us, make an attackupon the town themselves; but the defendants, being ready for them,received them very warmly, and beat them off with great loss.

  I was at a loss now what to do; for hearing the guns, and by the noiseknowing it was an assault upon the town, I was very uneasy to have myshare in it; but as I had learnt under the King of Sweden punctuallyto adhere to the execution of orders, and my orders being to lie stilltill the foot came up with me, I would not stir if I had been sure tohave done never so much service; but, however, to satisfy myself, Isent to the prince to let him know that I continued in the same placeexpecting the foot, and none being yet come, I desired farther orders.The prince was a little amazed at this, and finding there must be somemistake, came galloping away in the dark to the place and drew off themen, which was no hard matter, for they were willing enough to give itover.

  As for me, the prince ordered me to come off so privately as not tobe discovered, if possible, which I effectually did; and so we werebalked for that night. The next day the prince fell on upon anotherquarter with three regiments of foot, but was beaten off with loss,and the like a third time. At last the prince resolved to carry it,doubled his numbers, and, renewing the attack with fresh men, the footentered the town over their works, killing in the first heat of theaction all that came in their way; some of the foot at the same timeletting in the horse, and so the town was entirely won. There wasabout 600 of the enemy killed, and we lost above 400 in all, which wasowing to the foolish mistakes we made. Our men got some plunder here,which the Parliament made a great noise about; but it was their due,and they bought it dear enough.

  Liverpool did not cost us so much, nor did we get so much by it, thepeople having sent their women and children and best goods on boardthe ships in the road; and as we had no boats to board them with, wecould not get at them. Here, as at Bolton, the town and fort was takenby storm, and the garrison were many of them cut in pieces, which, bythe way, was their own faults.

  Our next step was Lathom House, which the Countess of Derby hadgallantly defended above eighteen weeks against the Parliament forces;and this lady not only encouraged her men by her cheerful and noblemaintenance of them, but by examples of her own undaunted spirit,exposing herself upon the walls in the midst of the enemy's shot,would be with her men in the greatest dangers; and she well deservedour care of her person, for the enemy were prepared to use her veryrudely if she fell into their hands.

  Upon our approach the enemy drew off, and the prince not onlyeffectually relieved this vigorous lady, but left her a good quantityof all sorts of ammunition, three great guns, 500 arms, and 200 men,commanded by a major, as her extraordinary guard.

  Here the way being now opened, and our success answering ourexpectation, several bodies of foot came in to us from Westmorelandand from Cumberland; and here it was that the prince found means tosurprise the town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which was recovered forthe king by the management of the mayor of the town, and some loyalgentlemen of the county, and a garrison placed there again for theking.

  But our main design being the relief of York, the prince advanced thatway apace, his army still increasing; and being joined by the LordGoring from Richmondshire with 4000 horse, which were the
same theEarl of Newcastle had sent away when he threw himself into York withthe infantry, we were now 18,000 effective men, whereof 10,000 horseand dragoons; so the prince, full of hopes, and his men in good heart,boldly marched directly for York.

  The Scots, as much surprised at the taking of Newcastle as at thecoming of their enemy, began to inquire which way they should gethome, if they should be beaten; and calling a council of war, they allagreed to raise the siege. The prince, who drew with him a great trainof carriages charged with provision and ammunition for the relief ofthe city, like a wary general, kept at a distance from the enemy, andfetching a great compass about, brings all safe into the city, andenters into York himself with all his army.

  No action of this whole war had gained the prince so much honour, orthe king's affairs so much advantage, as this, had the prince but hadthe power to have restrained his courage after this, and checked hisfatal eagerness for fighting. Here was a siege raised, the reputationof the enemy justly stirred, a city relieved, and furnished with allthings necessary in the face of an army superior in a number by near10,000 men, and commanded by a triumvirate of Generals Leven, Fairfax,and Manchester. Had the prince but remembered the proceeding of thegreat Duke of Parma at the relief of Paris, he would have seen therelieving the city was his business; 'twas the enemy's business tofight if possible, 'twas his to avoid it; for, having delivered thecity, and put the disgrace of raising the siege upon the enemy, he hadnothing further to do but to have waited till he had seen what coursethe enemy would take, and taken his further measures from theirmotion.

  But the prince, a continual friend to precipitant counsels, would hearno advice. I entreated him not to put it to the hazard; I told himthat he ought to consider if he lost the day he lost the kingdom, andtook the crown off from the king's head. I put him in mind that itwas impossible those three generals should continue long together; andthat if they did, they would not agree long in their counsels, whichwould be as well for us as their separating. 'Twas plain Manchesterand Cromwell must return to the associated counties, who would notsuffer them to stay, for fear the king should attempt them. That hecould subsist well enough, having York city and river at his back;but the Scots would eat up the country, make themselves odious, anddwindle away to nothing, if he would but hold them at bay a little.Other general officers were of the same mind; but all I could say, orthey either, to a man deaf to anything but his own courage, signifiednothing. He would draw out and fight; there was no persuading him tothe contrary, unless a man would run the risk of being upbraided withbeing a coward, and afraid of the work. The enemy's army lay on alarge common, called Marston Moor, doubtful what to do. Some were forfighting the prince, the Scots were against it, being uneasy at havingthe garrison of Newcastle at their backs; but the prince brought theircouncils of war to a result, for he let them know they must fight him,whether they would or no; for the prince being, as before, 18,000 men,and the Earl of Newcastle having joined him with 8000 foot out of thecity, were marched in quest of the enemy, had entered the moor in viewof their army, and began to draw up in order of battle; but the nightcoming on, the armies only viewed each other at a distance for thattime. We lay all night upon our arms, and with the first of the daywere in order of battle; the enemy was getting ready, but part ofManchester's men were not in the field, but lay about three miles off,and made a hasty march to come up.

  The prince's army was exceedingly well managed; he himself commandedthe left wing, the Earl of Newcastle the right wing; and the LordGoring, as general of the foot, assisted by Major-General Porterand Sir Charles Lucas, led the main battle. I had prevailed with theprince, according to the method of the King of Sweden, to place somesmall bodies of musketeers in the intervals of his horse, in the leftwing, but could not prevail upon the Earl of Newcastle to do it in theright, which he afterwards repented. In this posture we stood facingthe enemy, expecting they would advance to us, which at last theydid; and the prince began the day by saluting them with his artillery,which, being placed very well, galled them terribly for a quarterof an hour. They could not shift their front, so they advanced thehastier to get within our great guns, and consequently out of theirdanger, which brought the fight the sooner on.

  The enemy's army was thus ordered; Sir Thomas Fairfax had the rightwing, in which was the Scots horse, and the horse of his own and hisfather's army; Cromwell led the left wing, with his own and the Earlof Manchester's horse, and the three generals, Leslie, old Fairfax,and Manchester, led the main battle.

  The prince, with our left wing, fell on first, and, with his usualfury, broke like a clap of thunder into the right wing of the Scotshorse, led by Sir Thomas Fairfax, and, as nothing could stand in hisway, he broke through and through them, and entirely routed them,pursuing them quite out of the field. Sir Thomas Fairfax, with aregiment of lances, and about 500 of his own horse, made good theground for some time; but our musketeers, which, as I said, were suchan unlooked-for sort of an article in a fight among the horse, thatthose lances, which otherwise were brave fellows, were mowed down withtheir shot, and all was put into confusion. Sir Thomas Fairfax waswounded in the face, his brother killed, and a great slaughter wasmade of the Scots, to whom I confess we showed no favour at all.

  While this was doing on our left, the Lord Goring with the main battlecharged the enemy's foot; and particularly one brigade commanded byMajor-General Porter, being mostly pikemen, not regarding the fire ofthe enemy, charged with that fury in a close body of pikes, that theyoverturned all that came in their way, and breaking into the middle ofthe enemy's foot, filled all with terror and confusion, insomuch thatthe three generals, thinking all had been lost, fled, and quitted thefield.

  But matters went not so well with that always unfortunate gentlemanthe Earl of Newcastle and our right wing of horse; for Cromwellcharged the Earl of Newcastle with a powerful body of horse. Andthough the earl, and those about him, did what men could do, andbehaved themselves with all possible gallantry, yet there was nowithstanding Cromwell's horse, but, like Prince Rupert, they bore downall before them. And now the victory was wrung out of our hands by ourown gross miscarriage; for the prince, as 'twas his custom, too eagerin the chase of the enemy, was gone and could not be heard of. Thefoot in the centre, the right wing of the horse being routed byCromwell, was left, and without the guard of his horse; Cromwellhaving routed the Earl of Newcastle, and beaten him quite out of thefield, and Sir Thomas Fairfax rallying his dispersed troops, they fallall together upon the foot. General Lord Goring, like himself, foughtlike a lion, but, forsaken of his horse, was hemmed in on all sides,and overthrown; and an hour after this, the prince returning, too lateto recover his friends, was obliged with the rest to quit the field toconquerors.

  This was a fatal day to the king's affairs, and the risk too muchfor any man in his wits to run; we lost 4000 men on the spot, 3000prisoners, among whom was Sir Charles Lucas, Major-General Porter,Major-General Tilyard, and about 170 gentlemen of quality. We lost allour baggage, twenty-five pieces of cannon, 3000 carriages, 150 barrelsof powder, 10,000 arms. The prince got into York with the Earl ofNewcastle, and a great many gentlemen; and 7000 or 8000 of the men, aswell horse as foot.

  I had but very coarse treatment in this fight; for returning with theprince from the pursuit of the right wing, and finding all lost, Ihalted with some other officers, to consider what to do. At first wewere for making our retreat in a body, and might have done so wellenough, if we had known what had happened, before we saw ourselves inthe middle of the enemy; for Sir Thomas Fairfax, who had got togetherhis scattered troops, and joined by some of the left wing, knowingwho we were, charged us with great fury. 'Twas not a time to think ofanything but getting away, or dying upon the spot; the prince kepton in the front, and Sir Thomas Fairfax by this charge cut off aboutthree regiments of us from our body; but bending his main strengthat the prince, left us, as it were, behind him, in the middle of thefield of battle. We took this for the only opportunity we could haveto get off, and joining together, we made
across the place of battlein as good order as we could, with our carabines presented. In thisposture we passed by several bodies of the enemy's foot, who stoodwith their pikes charged to keep us off; but they had no occasion, forwe had no design to meddle with them, but to get from them.

  Thus we made a swift march, and thought ourselves pretty secure; butour work was not done yet, for on a sudden we saw ourselves under anecessity of fighting our way through a great body of Manchester'shorse, who came galloping upon us over the moor. They had, as wesuppose, been pursuing some of our broken troops which were fledbefore, and seeing us, they gave us a home charge. We received them aswell as we could, but pushed to get through them, which at last we didwith a considerable loss to them. However, we lost so many men, eitherkilled or separated from us (for all could not follow the same way),that of our three regiments we could not be above 400 horse togetherwhen we got quite clear, and these were mixed men, some of one troopand regiment, some of another. Not that I believe many of us werekilled in the last attack, for we had plainly the better of the enemy,but our design being to get off, some shifted for themselves one wayand some another, in the best manner they could, and as their severalfortunes guided them. Four hundred more of this body, as I afterwardsunderstood, having broke through the enemy's body another way, kepttogether, and got into Pontefract Castle, and 300 more made northwardand to Skipton, where the prince afterwards fetched them off.

  These few of us that were left together, with whom I was, being nowpretty clear of pursuit, halted, and began to inquire who and whowe were, and what we should do; and on a short debate, I proposed weshould make to the first garrison of the king's that we could recover,and that we should keep together, lest the country people shouldinsult us upon the roads. With this resolution we pushed on westwardfor Lancashire, but our misfortunes were not yet at an end. Wetravelled very hard, and got to a village upon the river Wharfe, nearWetherby. At Wetherby there was a bridge, but we understood that aparty from Leeds had secured the town and the post, in order to stopthe flying Cavaliers, and that 'twould be very hard to get throughthere, though, as we understood afterwards, there were no soldiersthere but a guard of the townsmen. In this pickle we consulted whatcourse to take. To stay where we were till morning, we all concluded,would not be safe. Some advised to take the stream with our horses,but the river, which is deep, and the current strong, seemed to bidus have a care what we did of that kind, especially in the night. Weresolved therefore to refresh ourselves and our horses, which indeedis more than we did, and go on till we might come to a ford or bridge,where we might get over. Some guides we had, but they either werefoolish or false, for after we had rode eight or nine miles, theyplunged us into a river at a place they called a ford, but 'twas avery ill one, for most of our horses swam, and seven or eight werelost, but we saved the men. However, we got all over.

  We made bold with our first convenience to trespass upon the countryfor a few horses, where we could find them, to remount our men whosehorses were drowned, and continued our march. But being obliged torefresh ourselves at a small village on the edge of Bramham Moor, wefound the country alarmed by our taking some horses, and we were nosooner got on horseback in the morning, and entering on the moor, butwe understood we were pursued by some troops of horse. There wasno remedy but we must pass this moor; and though our horses wereexceedingly tired, yet we pressed on upon a round trot, and recoveredan enclosed country on the other side, where we halted. And here,necessity putting us upon it, we were obliged to look out for morehorses, for several of our men were dismounted, and others' horsesdisabled by carrying double, those who lost their horses getting upbehind them. But we were supplied by our enemies against their will.

  The enemy followed us over the moor, and we having a woody enclosedcountry about us, where we were, I observed by their moving, they hadlost sight of us; upon which I proposed concealing ourselves till wemight judge of their numbers. We did so, and lying close in a wood,they passed hastily by us, without skirting or searching the wood,which was what on another occasion they would not have done. I foundthey were not above 150 horse, and considering, that to let themgo before us, would be to alarm the country, and stop our design, Ithought, since we might be able to deal with them, we should not meetwith a better place for it, and told the rest of our officers my mind,which all our party presently (for we had not time for a long debate)agreed to.

  Immediately upon this I caused two men to fire their pistols in thewood, at two different places, as far asunder as I could. This I didto give them an alarm, and amuse them; for being in the lane, theywould otherwise have got through before we had been ready, and Iresolved to engage them there, as soon as 'twas possible. After thisalarm, we rushed out of the wood, with about a hundred horse, andcharged them on the flank in a broad lane, the wood being on theirright. Our passage into the lane being narrow, gave us some difficultyin our getting out; but the surprise of the charge did our work; forthe enemy, thinking we had been a mile or two before, had not theleast thoughts of this onset, till they heard us in the wood, and thenthey who were before could not come back. We broke into the lane justin the middle of them, and by that means divided them; and facing tothe left, charged the rear. First our dismounted men, which were nearfifty, lined the edge of the wood, and fired with their carabines uponthose which were before, so warmly, that they put them into a greatdisorder. Meanwhile fifty more of our horse from the farther part ofthe wood showed themselves in the lane upon their front. This put themof the foremost party into a great perplexity, and they began to faceabout, to fall upon us who were engaged in the rear. But theirfacing about in a lane where there was no room to wheel, as one whounderstands the manner of wheeling a troop of horse must imagine, putthem into a great disorder. Our party in the head of the lane takingthe advantage of this mistake of the enemy, charged in upon them, androuted them entirely.

  Some found means to break into the enclosures on the other side of thelane, and get away. About thirty were killed, and about twenty-fivemade prisoners, and forty very good horses were taken; all this whilenot a man of ours was lost, and not above seven or eight wounded.Those in the rear behaved themselves better, for they stood our chargewith a great deal of resolution, and all we could do could not breakthem; but at last our men who had fired on foot through the hedges atthe other party, coming to do the like here, there was no standingit any longer. The rear of them faced about and retreated out ofthe lane, and drew up in the open field to receive and rally theirfellows. We killed about seventeen of them, and followed them to theend of the lane, but had no mind to have any more fighting than needsmust, our condition at that time not making it proper, the towns roundus being all in the enemy's hands, and the country but indifferentlypleased with us; however, we stood facing them till they thought fitto march away. Thus we were supplied with horses enough to remount ourmen, and pursued our first design of getting into Lancashire. As forour prisoners, we let them off on foot.

  But the country being by this time alarmed, and the rout of our armyeverywhere known, we foresaw abundance of difficulties before us; wewere not strong enough to venture into any great towns, and we weretoo many to be concealed in small ones. Upon this we resolved to haltin a great wood about three miles beyond the place where we had thelast skirmish, and sent our scouts to discover the country, and learnwhat they could, either of the enemy or of our friends.

  Anybody may suppose we had but indifferent quarters here, either forourselves or for our horses; but, however, we made shift to lie heretwo days and one night. In the interim I took upon me, with two more,to go to Leeds to learn some news; we were disguised like countryploughmen; the clothes we got at a farmer's house, which for thatparticular occasion we plundered; and I cannot say no blood was shedin a manner too rash, and which I could not have done at another time;but our case was desperate, and the people too surly, and shot at usout of the window, wounded one man and shot a horse, which we countedas great a loss to us as a man, for our safety depended upon ourhorses. Here we go
t clothes of all sorts, enough for both sexes, andthus dressing myself up _au paysan,_ with a white cap on my head, anda fork on my shoulder, and one of my comrades in the farmer's wife'srusset gown and petticoat, like a woman, the other with an old crutchlike a lame man, and all mounted on such horses as we had taken theday before from the country, away we go to Leeds by three severalways, and agreed to meet upon the bridge. My pretended country womanacted her part to the life, though the party was a gentleman of goodquality, of the Earl of Worcester's family; and the cripple did aswell as he; but I thought myself very awkward in my dress, which mademe very shy, especially among the soldiers. We passed their sentinelsand guards at Leeds unobserved, and put up our horses at severalhouses in the town, from whence we went up and down to make ourremarks. My cripple was the fittest to go among the soldiers, becausethere was less danger of being pressed. There he informed himself ofthe matters of war, particularly that the enemy sat down again to thesiege of York; that flying parties were in pursuit of the Cavaliers;and there he heard that 500 horse of the Lord Manchester's men hadfollowed a party of Cavaliers over Bramham Moor, and that entering alane, the Cavaliers, who were 1000 strong, fell upon them, and killedthem all but about fifty. This, though it was a lie, was very pleasantto us to hear, knowing it was our party, because of the other part ofthe story, which was thus: That the Cavaliers had taken possession ofsuch a wood, where they rallied all the troops of their flying army;that they had plundered the country as they came, taking all thehorses they could get; that they had plundered Goodman Thomson'shouse, which was the farmer I mentioned, and killed man, woman, andchild; and that they were about 2000 strong.

  My other friend in woman's clothes got among the good wives at aninn, where she set up her horse, and there she heard the same sadand dreadful tidings; and that this party was so strong, none ofthe neighbouring garrisons durst stir out; but that they had sentexpresses to York, for a party of horse to come to their assistance.

  I walked up and down the town, but fancied myself so ill disguised,and so easy to be known, that I cared not to talk with anybody. Wemet at the bridge exactly at our time, and compared our intelligence,found it answered our end of coming, and that we had nothing to do butto get back to our men; but my cripple told me, he would not stir tillhe bought some victuals: so away he hops with his crutch, and buysfour or five great pieces of bacon, as many of hung beef, and twoor three loaves; and borrowing a sack at the inn (which I supposehe never restored), he loads his horse, and getting a large leatherbottle, he filled that of aqua-vitae instead of small beer; my womancomrade did the like. I was uneasy in my mind, and took no care but toget out of the town; however, we all came off well enough; but'twas well for me that I had no provisions with me, as you will hearpresently.

  We came, as I said, into the town by several ways, and so we went out;but about three miles from the town we met again exactly where we hadagreed. I being about a quarter of a mile from the rest, I meets threecountry fellows on horseback; one had a long pole on his shoulder,another a fork, the third no weapon at all, that I saw. I gave themthe road very orderly, being habited like one of their brethren; butone of them stopping short at me, and looking earnestly calls out,"Hark thee, friend," says he, in a broad north-country tone, "wharhast thou thilk horse?" I must confess I was in the utmost confusionat the question, neither being able to answer the question, nor tospeak in his tone; so I made as if I did not hear him, and went on."Na, but ye's not gang soa," says the boor, and comes up to me, andtakes hold of the horse's bridle to stop me; at which, vexed at heartthat I could not tell how to talk to him, I reached him a great knockon the pate with my fork, and fetched him off of his horse, and thenbegan to mend my pace. The other clowns, though it seems they knew notwhat the fellow wanted, pursued me, and finding they had better heelsthan I, I saw there was no remedy but to make use of my hands, andfaced about.

  The first that came up with me was he that had no weapons, so Ithought I might parley with him, and speaking as country-like as Icould, I asked him what he wanted? "Thou'st knaw that soon," saysYorkshire, "and ise but come at thee." "Then keep awa', man," saidI, "or ise brain thee." By this time the third man came up, and theparley ended; for he gave me no words, but laid at me with his longpole, and that with such fury, that I began to be doubtful of him.I was loth to shoot the fellow, though I had pistols under my greyfrock, as well for that the noise of a pistol might bring more peoplein, the village being on our rear, and also because I could notimagine what the fellow meant, or would have. But at last, findinghe would be too many for me with that long weapon, and a hardy strongfellow, I threw myself off my horse, and running in with him, stabbedmy fork into his horse. The horse being wounded, staggered awhile, andthen fell down, and the booby had not the sense to get down in time,but fell with him. Upon which, giving him a knock or two with my fork,I secured him. The other, by this time, had furnished himself with agreat stick out of a hedge, and before I was disengaged from the lastfellow, gave me two such blows, that if the last had not missed myhead and hit me on the shoulder, I had ended the fight and my lifetogether. 'Twas time to look about me now, for this was a madman. Idefended myself with my fork, but 'twould not do. At last, in short, Iwas forced to pistol him and get on horseback again, and with all thespeed I could make, get away to the wood to our men.

  If my two fellow-spies had not been behind, I had never known what wasthe meaning of this quarrel of the three countrymen, but my cripplehad all the particulars. For he being behind us, as I have alreadyobserved, when he came up to the first fellow who began the fray, hefound him beginning to come to himself. So he gets off, and pretendsto help him, and sets him up upon his breech, and being a very merryfellow, talked to him: "Well, and what's the matter now?" says he tohim. "Ah, wae's me," says the fellow, "I is killed." "Not quite, mon,"says the cripple. "Oh, that's a fau thief," says he, and thus theyparleyed. My cripple got him on's feet, and gave him a dram of hisaqua-vitae bottle, and made much of him, in order to know what was theoccasion of the quarrel. Our disguised woman pitied the fellow too,and together they set him up again upon his horse, and then he toldhim that that fellow was got upon one of his brother's horses wholived at Wetherby. They said the Cavaliers stole him, but 'twas likesuch rogues. No mischief could be done in the country, but 'twas thepoor Cavaliers must bear the blame, and the like, and thus they joggedon till they came to the place where the other two lay. The firstfellow they assisted as they had done t'other, and gave him a dramout of the leather bottle, but the last fellow was past their care,so they came away. For when they understood that 'twas my horse theyclaimed, they began to be afraid that their own horses might be knowntoo, and then they had been betrayed in a worse pickle than I, andmust have been forced to have done some mischief or other to have gotaway.

  I had sent out two troopers to fetch them off, if there was anyoccasion; but their stay was not long and the two troopers saw them ata distance coming towards us, so they returned.

  I had enough of going for a spy, and my companions had enough ofstaying in the wood for other intelligences agreed with ours, and allconcurred in this, that it was time to be going; however, this use wemade of it, that while the country thought us so strong we were in theless danger of being attacked, though in the more of being observed;but all this while we heard nothing of our friends till the next day.We heard Prince Rupert, with about 1000 horse, was at Skipton, andfrom thence marched away to Westmoreland.

  We concluded now we had two or three days' time good; for, sincemessengers were sent to York for a party to suppress us, we must haveat least two days' march of them, and therefore all concluded wewere to make the best of our way. Early in the morning, therefore, wedecamped from those dull quarters; and as we marched through a villagewe found the people very civil to us, and the women cried out, "Godbless them, 'tis pity the Roundheads should make such work withsuch brave men," and the like. Finding we were among our friends,we resolved to halt a little and refresh ourselves; and, indeed, thepeople were very kind to us, ga
ve us victuals and drink, and took careof our horses. It happened to be my lot to stop at a house wherethe good woman took a great deal of pains to provide for us; but Iobserved the good man walked about with a cap upon his head, and verymuch out of order. I took no great notice of it, being very sleepy,and having asked my landlady to let me have a bed, I lay down andslept heartily. When I waked I found my landlord on another bedgroaning very heavily.

  When I came downstairs, I found my cripple talking with my landlady;he was now out of his disguise, but we called him cripple still; andthe other, who put on the woman's clothes, we called Goody Thompson.As soon as he saw me, he called me out, "Do you know," says he, "theman of the house you are quartered in?" "No, not I," says I. "No; so Ibelieve, nor they you," says he; "if they did, the good wife would nothave made you a posset, and fetched a white loaf for you." "What doyou mean?" says I. "Have you seen the man?" says he. "Seen him," saysI; "yes, and heard him too; the man's sick, and groans so heavily,"says I, "that I could not lie upon the bed any longer for him." "Why,this is the poor man," says he, "that you knocked down with your forkyesterday, and I have had all the story out yonder at the next door."I confess it grieved me to have been forced to treat one so roughlywho was one of our friends, but to make some amends, we contrivedto give the poor man his brother's horse; and my cripple told hima formal story, that he believed the horse was taken away from thefellow by some of our men, and if he knew him again, if 'twas hisfriend's horse, he should have him. The man came down upon the news,and I caused six or seven horses, which were taken at the same time,to be shown him; he immediately chose the right; so I gave him thehorse, and we pretended a great deal of sorrow for the man's hurt, andthat we had not knocked the fellow on the head as well as took awaythe horse. The man was so overjoyed at the revenge he thought wastaken on the fellow, that we heard him groan no more.

  We ventured to stay all day at this town and the next night, and gotguides to lead us to Blackstone Edge, a ridge of mountains whichpart this side of Yorkshire from Lancashire. Early in the morning wemarched, and kept our scouts very carefully out every way, who broughtus no news for this day. We kept on all night, and made our horses dopenance for that little rest they had, and the next morning we passedthe hills and got into Lancashire, to a town called Littlebrough,and from thence to Rochdale, a little market town. And now we thoughtourselves safe as to the pursuit of enemies from the side of York. Ourdesign was to get to Bolton, but all the county was full of the enemyin flying parties, and how to get to Bolton we knew not. At last weresolved to send a messenger to Bolton; but he came back and toldus he had with lurking and hiding tried all the ways that he thoughtpossible, but to no purpose, for he could not get into the town. Wesent another, and he never returned, and some time after we understoodhe was taken by the enemy. At last one got into the town, but broughtus word they were tired out with constant alarms, had been strictlyblocked up, and every day expected a siege, and therefore advised useither to go northward where Prince Rupert and the Lord Goring rangedat liberty, or to get over Warrington Bridge, and so secure ourretreat to Chester.

  This double direction divided our opinions. I was for getting intoChester, both to recruit myself with horses and with money, both whichI wanted, and to get refreshment, which we all wanted; but the majorpart of our men were for the north. First they said there was theirgeneral, and 'twas their duty to the cause, and the king's interestobliged us to go where we could do best service; and there was theirfriends, and every man might hear some news of his own regiment, forwe belonged to several regiments. Besides, all the towns to theleft of us were possessed by Sir William Brereton, Warrington, andNorthwich, garrisoned by the enemy, and a strong party at Manchester,so that 'twas very likely we should be beaten and dispersed beforewe could get to Chester. These reasons, and especially the last,determined us for the north, and we had resolved to march thenext morning, when other intelligence brought us to more speedyresolutions. We kept our scouts continually abroad to bring usintelligence of the enemy, whom we expected on our backs, and also tokeep an eye upon the country; for, as we lived upon them somethingat large, they were ready enough to do us any ill turn, as it lay intheir power.

  The first messenger that came to us was from our friends at Bolton, toinform us that they were preparing at Manchester to attack us. One ofour parties had been as far as Stockport, on the edge of Cheshire, andwas pursued by a party of the enemy, but got off by the help of thenight. Thus, all things looked black to the south, we had resolved tomarch northward in the morning, when one of our scouts from the sideof Manchester, assured us Sir Thomas Middleton, with some of theParliament forces and the country troops, making above 1200 men, wereon the march to attack us, and would certainly beat up our quartersthat night. Upon this advice we resolved to be gone; and, getting allthings in readiness, we began to march about two hours before night.And having gotten a trusty fellow for a guide, a fellow that we foundwas a friend to our side, he put a project into my head which savedus all for that time; and that was, to give out in the village thatwe were marched to Yorkshire, resolving to get into Pontefract Castle;and accordingly he leads us out of the town the same way we came in,and, taking a boy with him, he sends the boy back just at night, andbade him say he saw us go up the hills at Blackstone Edge; and ithappened very well, for this party were so sure of us, that they hadplaced 400 men on the road to the northward to intercept our retreatthat way, and had left no way for us, as they thought, to get away butback again.

  About ten o'clock at night, they assaulted our quarters, but found wewere gone; and being informed which way, they followed upon the spur,and travelling all night, being moonlight, they found themselves thenext day about fifteen miles east, just out of their way. For we had,by the help of our guide, turned short at the foot of the hills, andthrough blind, untrodden paths, and with difficulty enough, by noonthe next day had reached almost twenty-five miles north, near a towncalled Clitheroe. Here we halted in the open field, and sent outour people to see how things were in the country. This part ofthe country, almost unpassable, and walled round with hills, wasindifferent quiet, and we got some refreshment for ourselves, but verylittle horse-meat, and so went on. But we had not marched far beforewe found ourselves discovered, and the 400 horse sent to lie in waitfor us as before, having understood which way we went, followed ushard; and by letters to some of their friends at Preston, we found wewere beset again.

  Our guide began now to be out of his knowledge, and our scouts broughtus word, the enemy's horse was posted before us, and we knew they werein our rear. In this exigence, we resolved to divide our smallbody, and so amusing them, at least one might get off, if the othermiscarried. I took about eighty horse with me, among which were allthat I had of our own regiment, amounting to above thirty-two, andtook the hills towards Yorkshire. Here we met with such unpassablehills, vast moors, rocks, and stonyways, as lamed all our horses andtired our men; and some times I was ready to think we should never beable to get over them, till our horses failing, and jackboots beingbut indifferent things to travel in, we might be starved before weshould find any road, or towns; for guide we had none, but a boy whoknew but little, and would cry when we asked him any questions. Ibelieve neither men nor horses ever passed in some places where wewent, and for twenty hours we saw not a town nor a house, exceptingsometimes from the top of the mountains, at a vast distance. I ampersuaded we might have encamped here, if we had had provisions, tillthe war had been over, and have met with no disturbance; and I haveoften wondered since, how we got into such horrible places, as muchas how we got out. That which was worse to us than all the rest, was,that we knew not where we were going, nor what part of the country weshould come into, when we came out of those desolate crags. Atlast, after a terrible fatigue, we began to see the western parts ofYorkshire, some few villages, and the country at a distance looked alittle like England, for I thought before it looked like old BrennusHill, which the Grisons call "the grandfather of the Alps." We gotsome relief in the villages, whic
h indeed some of us had so much needof, that they were hardly able to sit their horses, and others wereforced to help them off, they were so faint. I never felt so much ofthe power of hunger in my life, for having not eaten in thirty hours,I was as ravenous as a hound; and if I had had a piece of horse-flesh,I believe I should not have had patience to have staid dressingit, but have fallen upon it raw, and have eaten it as greedily as aTartar. However I ate very cautiously, having often seen the danger ofmen's eating heartily after long fasting.

  Our next care was to inquire our way. Halifax, they told us, was onour right. There we durst not think of going. Skipton was before us,and there we knew not how it was, for a body of 3000 horse, sent outby the enemy in pursuit of Prince Rupert, had been there but two daysbefore, and the country people could not tell us whether they weregone, or no. And Manchester's horse, which were sent out after ourparty, were then at Halifax, in quest of us, and afterwards marchedinto Cheshire. In this distress we would have hired a guide, but noneof the country people would go with us, for the Roundheads would hangthem, they said, when they came there. Upon this I called a fellow tome, "Hark ye, friend," says I, "dost thee know the way so as to bringus into Westmoreland, and not keep the great road from York?" "Ay,merry," says he, "I ken the ways weel enou!" "And you would go andguide us," said I, "but that you are afraid the Roundheads will hangyou?" "Indeed would I," says the fellow. "Why then," says I, "thouhadst as good be hanged by a Cavalier as a Roundhead, for if thou wiltnot go, I'll hang thee just now." "Na, and ye serve me soa," says thefellow, "Ise ene gang with ye, for I care not for hanging; and ye'llget me a good horse, Ise gang and be one of ye, for I'll nere comeheame more." This pleased us still better, and we mounted the fellow,for three of our men died that night with the extreme fatigue of thelast service.

  Next morning, when our new trooper was mounted and clothed we hardlyknew him; and this fellow led us by such ways, such wildernesses, andyet with such prudence, keeping the hills to the left, that we mighthave the villages to refresh ourselves, that without him, we hadcertainly either perished in those mountains, or fallen into theenemy's hands. We passed the great road from York so critically as totime, that from one of the hills he showed us a party of the enemy'shorse who were then marching into Westmoreland. We lay still that day,finding we were not discovered by them; and our guide proved the bestscout that we could have had; for he would go out ten miles at a time,and bring us in all the news of the country. Here he brought us word,that York was surrendered upon articles, and that Newcastle, which hadbeen surprised by the king's party, was besieged by another army ofScots advanced to help their brethren.

  Along the edges of those vast mountains we passed with the help of ourguide, till we came into the forest of Swale; and finding ourselvesperfectly concealed here, for no soldier had ever been here all thewar, nor perhaps would not, if it had lasted seven years, we thoughtwe wanted a few days' rest, at least for our horses. So we resolved tohalt; and while we did so, we made some disguises, and sent out somespies into the country; but as here were no great towns, nor no postroad, we got very little intelligence. We rested four days, and thenmarched again; and indeed having no great stock of money about us,and not very free of that we had, four days was enough for those poorplaces to be able to maintain us.

  We thought ourselves pretty secure now; but our chief care was how toget over those terrible mountains; for having passed the great roadthat leads from York to Lancaster, the crags, the farther northward welooked, looked still the worse, and our business was all on the otherside. Our guide told us, he would bring us out, if we would havepatience, which we were obliged to, and kept on this slow march, tillhe brought us to Stanhope, in the country of Durham; where some ofGoring's horse, and two regiments of foot, had their quarters. Thiswas nineteen days from the battle of Marston Moor. The prince, whowas then at Kendal in Westmoreland, and who had given me over as lost,when he had news of our arrival, sent an express to me, to meet himat Appleby. I went thither accordingly, and gave him an account of ourjourney, and there I heard the short history of the other part of ourmen, whom we parted from in Lancashire. They made the best of theirway north; they had two resolute gentlemen who commanded; and beingso closely pursued by the enemy, that they found themselves under anecessity of fighting, they halted, and faced about, expecting thecharge. The boldness of the action made the officer who led theenemy's horse (which it seems were the county horse only) afraidof them; which they perceiving, taking the advantage of his fears,bravely advance, and charge them; and though they were above 200horse, they routed them, killed about thirty or forty, got somehorses, and some money, and pushed on their march night and day; butcoming near Lancaster, they were so waylaid and pursued, that theyagreed to separate, and shift every man for himself. Many of them fellinto the enemy's hands; some were killed attempting to pass throughthe river Lune; some went back, six or seven got to Bolton, and abouteighteen got safe to Prince Rupert.

  The prince was in a better condition hereabouts than I expected; heand my Lord Goring, with the help of Sir Marmaduke Langdale, and thegentlemen of Cumberland, had gotten a body of 4000 horse, and about6000 foot; they had retaken Newcastle, Tynemouth, Durham, Stockton,and several towns of consequence from the Scots, and might have cutthem out work enough still, if that base people, resolved to engagetheir whole interest to ruin their sovereign, had not sent a secondarmy of 10,000 men, under the Earl of Callander, to help their first.These came and laid siege to Newcastle, but found more vigorousresistance now than they had done before.

  There were in the town Sir John Morley, the Lord Crawford, LordReay, and Maxwell, Scots; and old soldiers, who were resolved theircountrymen should buy the town very dear, if they had it; and had itnot been for our disaster at Marston Moor, they had never had it; forCallander, finding he was not able to carry the town, sends to GeneralLeven to come from the siege of York to help him.

  Meantime the prince forms a very good army, and the Lord Goring, with10,000 men, shows himself on the borders of Scotland, to try if thatmight not cause the Scots to recall their forces; and, I am persuaded,had he entered Scotland, the Parliament of Scotland had recalled theEarl of Callander, for they had but 5000 men left in arms to sendagainst him; but they were loth to venture. However, this effect ithad, that it called the Scots northward again, and found them workthere for the rest of the summer to reduce the several towns in thebishopric of Durham.

  I found with the prince the poor remains of my regiment, which, whenjoined with those that had been with me, could not all make up threetroops, and but two captains, three lieutenants, and one cornet; therest were dispersed, killed, or taken prisoners. However, with those,which we still called a regiment, I joined the prince, and afterhaving done all we could on that side, the Scots being returned fromYork, the prince returned through Lancashire to Chester.

  The enemy often appeared and alarmed us, and once fell on one of ourparties, and killed us about a hundred men; but we were too many forthem to pretend to fight us, so we came to Bolton, beat the troopsof the enemy near Warrington, where I got a cut with a halberd in myface, and arrived at Chester the beginning of August.

  The Parliament, upon their great success in the north, thinking theking's forces quite unbroken, had sent their General Essex into thewest, where the king's army was commanded by Prince Maurice, PrinceRupert's elder brother, but not very strong; and the king being, asthey supposed, by the absence of Prince Rupert, weakened so much asthat he might be checked by Sir William Waller, who, with 4500 foot,and 1500 horse, was at that time about Winchester, having latelybeaten Sir Ralph Hopton;--upon all these considerations, the Earl ofEssex marches westward.

  The forces in the west being too weak to oppose him, everything gaveway to him, and all people expected he would besiege Exeter, wherethe queen was newly lying-in, and sent a trumpet to desire he wouldforbear the city, while she could be removed, which he did, and passedon westward, took Tiverton, Bideford, Barnstaple, Launceston, relievedPlymouth, drove Sir Richard Grenvile up
into Cornwall, and followedhim thither, but left Prince Maurice behind him with 4000 men aboutBarnstaple and Exeter. The king, in the meantime, marches from Oxfordinto Worcester, with Waller at his heels. At Edgehill his Majestyturns upon Waller, and gave him a brush, to put him in mind of theplace. The king goes on to Worcester, sends 300 horse to relieveDurley Castle, besieged by the Earl of Denby, and sending part of hisforces to Bristol, returns to Oxford.

  His Majesty had now firmly resolved to march into the west, not havingyet any account of our misfortunes in the north. Waller and Middletonwaylay the king at Cropredy Bridge. The king assaults Middleton at thebridge.

  Waller's men were posted with some cannon to guard a pass. Middleton'smen put a regiment of the king's foot to the rout, and pursued them.Waller's men, willing to come in for the plunder, a thing theirgeneral had often used them to, quit their post at the pass, and theirgreat guns, to have part in the victory. The king coming in seasonablyto the relief of his men, routs Middleton, and at the same time sendsa party round, who clapped in between Sir William Waller's men andtheir great guns, and secured the pass and the cannon too. Theking took three colonels, besides other officers, and about 300 menprisoners, with eight great guns, nineteen carriages of ammunition,and killed about 200 men.

  Waller lost his reputation in this fight, and was exceedingly slightedever after, even by his own party; but especially by such as wereof General Essex's party, between whom and Waller there had beenjealousies and misunderstandings for some time.

  The king, about 8000 strong, marched on to Bristol, where Sir WilliamHopton joined him, and from thence he follows Essex into Cornwall.Essex still following Grenvile, the king comes to Exeter, and joiningwith Prince Maurice, resolves to pursue Essex; and now the Earl ofEssex began to see his mistake, being cooped up between two seas,the king's army in his rear, the country his enemy, and Sir RichardGrenvile in his van.

  The king, who always took the best measures when he was left to hisown counsel, wisely refuses to engage, though superior in number, andmuch stronger in horse. Essex often drew out to fight, but the kingfortifies, takes the passes and bridges, plants cannon, and securesthe country to keep off provisions, and continually straitens theirquarters, but would not fight.

  Now Essex sends away to the Parliament for help, and they write toWaller, and Middleton, and Manchester to follow, and come up withthe king in his rear; but some were too far off, and could not, asManchester and Fairfax; others made no haste, as having no mind to it,as Waller and Middleton, and if they had, it had been too late.

  At last the Earl of Essex, finding nothing to be done, and unwillingto fall into the king's hands, takes shipping, and leaves his army toshift for themselves. The horse, under Sir William Balfour, thebest horse officer, and, without comparison, the bravest in all theParliament army, advanced in small parties, as if to skirmish, butfollowing in with the whole body, being 3500 horse, broke through, andgot off. Though this was a loss to the king's victory, yet the footwere now in a condition so much the worse. Brave old Skippon proposedto fight through with the foot and die, as he called it, likeEnglishmen, with sword in hand; but the rest of the officers shooktheir heads at it, for, being well paid, they had at present nooccasion for dying.

  Seeing it thus, they agreed to treat, and the king grants themconditions, upon laying down their arms, to march off free. This wastoo much. Had his Majesty but obliged them upon oath not to serveagain for a certain time, he had done his business; but this was notthought of; so they passed free, only disarmed, the soldiers not beingallowed so much as their swords.

  The king gained by this treaty forty pieces of cannon, all of brass,300 barrels of gunpowder, 9000 arms, 8000 swords, match and bullet inproportion, 200 waggons, 150 colours and standards, all the bag andbaggage of the army, and about 1000 of the men listed in his army.This was a complete victory without bloodshed; and had the kingbut secured the men from serving but for six months, it had mosteffectually answered the battle of Marston Moor.

  As it was, it infused new life into all his Majesty's forces andfriends, and retrieved his affairs very much; but especially itencouraged us in the north, who were more sensible of the blowreceived at Marston Moor, and of the destruction the Scots werebringing upon us all.

  While I was at Chester, we had some small skirmishes with Sir WilliamBrereton. One morning in particular Sir William drew up, and faced us,and one of our colonels of horse observing the enemy to be not, as hethought, above 200, desires leave of Prince Rupert to attack themwith the like number, and accordingly he sallied out with 200 horse. Istood drawn up without the city with 800 more, ready to bring him off,if he should be put to the worst, which happened accordingly; for, nothaving discovered neither the country nor the enemy as he ought, SirWilliam Brereton drew him into an ambuscade; so that before he came upwith Sir William's forces, near enough to charge, he finds about 300horse in his rear. Though he was surprised at this, yet, being a manof a ready courage, he boldly faces about with 150 of his men,leaving the other fifty to face Sir William. With this small party, hedesperately charges the 300 horse in his rear, and putting them intodisorder, breaks through them, and, had there been no greater force,he had cut them all in pieces. Flushed with this success, and lothto desert the fifty men he had left behind, he faces about again, andcharges through them again, and with these two charges entirely routsthem. Sir William Brereton finding himself a little disappointed,advances, and falls upon the fifty men just as the colonel came up tothem; they fought him with a great deal of bravery, but the colonelbeing unfortunately killed in the first charge, the men gave way, andcame flying all in confusion, with the enemy at their heels. As soonas I saw this, I advanced, according to my orders, and the enemy,as soon as I appeared, gave over the pursuit. This gentleman, as Iremember, was Colonel Marrow; we fetched off his body, and retreatedinto Chester.

  The next morning the prince drew out of the city with about 1200 horseand 2000 foot, and attacked Sir William Brereton in his quarters. Thefight was very sharp for the time, and near 700 men, on both sides,were killed; but Sir William would not put it to a general engagement,so the prince drew off, contenting himself to have insulted him in hisquarters.

  We now had received orders from the king to join him; but Irepresenting to the prince the condition of my regiment, which wasnow 100 men, and that, being within twenty-five miles of my father'shouse, I might soon recruit it, my father having got some men togetheralready, I desired leave to lie at Shrewsbury for a month, to make upmy men. Accordingly, having obtained his leave, I marched to Wrexham,where in two days' time I got twenty men, and so on to Shrewsbury. Ihad not been here above ten days, but I received an express to comeaway with what recruits I had got together, Prince Rupert havingpositive orders to meet the king by a certain day. I had not mounted100 men, though I had listed above 200, when these orders came; butleaving my father to complete them for me, I marched with those I hadand came to Oxford.

  The king, after the rout of the Parliament forces in the west, wasmarched back, took Barnstaple, Plympton, Launceston, Tiverton, andseveral other places, and left Plymouth besieged by Sir RichardGrenvile, met with Sir William Waller at Shaftesbury, and again atAndover, and boxed him at both places, and marched for Newbury. Herethe king sent for Prince Rupert to meet him, who with 3000 horse madelong marches to join him; but the Parliament having joined their threearmies together, Manchester from the north, Waller and Essex (themen being clothed and armed) from the west, had attacked the king andobliged him to fight the day before the prince came up.

  The king had so posted himself, as that he could not be obliged tofight but with advantage, the Parliament's forces being superior innumber, and therefore, when they attacked him, he galled them withhis cannon, and declining to come to a general battle, stood upon thedefensive, expecting Prince Rupert with the horse.

  The Parliament's forces had some advantage over our foot, and took theEarl of Cleveland prisoner. But the king, whose foot were not aboveone to two, drew his men under the ca
nnon of Donnington Castle, andhaving secured his artillery and baggage, made a retreat with his footin very good order, having not lost in all the fight above 300 men,and the Parliament as many. We lost five pieces of cannon and tooktwo, having repulsed the Earl of Manchester's men on the north side ofthe town, with considerable loss.

  The king having lodged his train of artillery and baggage inDonnington Castle, marched the next day for Oxford. There we joinedhim with 3000 horse and 2000 foot. Encouraged with this reinforcement,the king appears upon the hills on the north-west of Newbury, andfaces the Parliament army. The Parliament having too many generals aswell as soldiers, they could not agree whether they should fight orno. This was no great token of the victory they boasted of, for theywere now twice our number in the whole, and their foot three for one.The king stood in battalia all day, and finding the Parliament forceshad no stomach to engage him, he drew away his cannon and baggage outof Donnington Castle in view of their whole army, and marched away toOxford.

  This was such a false step of the Parliament's generals, that all thepeople cried shame of them. The Parliament appointed a committee toinquire into it. Cromwell accused Manchester, and he Waller, and sothey laid the fault upon one another. Waller would have been glad tohave charged it upon Essex, but as it happened he was not in the army,having been taken ill some days before. But as it generally is when amistake is made, the actors fall out among themselves, so it was here.No doubt it was as false a step as that of Cornwall, to let the kingfetch away his baggage and cannon in the face of three armies, andnever fire a shot at them.

  The king had not above 8000 foot in his army, and they above 25,000.Tis true the king had 8000 horse, a fine body, and much superior totheirs; but the foot might, with the greatest ease in the world, haveprevented the removing the cannon, and in three days' time have takenthe castle, with all that was in it.

  Those differences produced their self-denying ordinance, and theputting by most of their old generals, as Essex, Waller, Manchester,and the like; and Sir Thomas Fairfax, a terrible man in the field,though the mildest of men out of it, was voted to have the commandof all their forces, and Lambert to take the command of Sir ThomasFairfax's troops in the north, old Skippon being Major-General.

  This winter was spent on the enemy's side in modelling, as they calledit, their army, and on our side in recruiting ours, and some pettyexcursions. Amongst the many addresses I observed one from Sussex orSurrey, complaining of the rudeness of their soldiers, from which Ionly observed that there were disorders among them as well as amongus, only with this difference, that they, for reasons I mentionedbefore, were under circumstances to prevent it better than theking. But I must do the king's memory that justice, that he used allpossible methods, by punishment of soldiers, charging, and sometimesentreating, the gentlemen not to suffer such disorders and suchviolences in their men; but it was to no purpose for his Majesty toattempt it, while his officers, generals, and great men winked at it;for the licentiousness of the soldier is supposed to be approved bythe officer when it is not corrected.

  The rudeness of the Parliament soldiers began from the divisions amongtheir officers; for in many places the soldiers grew so out of alldiscipline and so unsufferably rude, that they, in particular, refusedto march when Sir William Waller went to Weymouth. This had turned togood account for us, had these cursed Scots been out of our way, butthey were the staff of the party; and now they were daily solicited tomarch southward, which was a very great affliction to the king and allhis friends.

  One booty the king got at this time, which was a very seasonableassistance to his affairs, viz., a great merchant ship, richly ladenat London, and bound to the East Indies, was, by the seamen, broughtinto Bristol, and delivered up to the king. Some merchants in Bristoloffered the king L40,000 for her, which his Majesty ordered should beaccepted, reserving only thirty great guns for his own use.

  The treaty at Uxbridge now was begun, and we that had been well beatenin the war heartily wished the king would come to a peace; but we allforesaw the clergy would ruin it all. The Commons were for Presbytery,and would never agree the bishops should be restored. The king waswillinger to comply with anything than this, and we foresaw it wouldbe so; from whence we used to say among ourselves, "That the clergywas resolved if there should be no bishop there should be no king."

  This treaty at Uxbridge was a perfect war between the men of the gown,ours was between those of the sword; and I cannot but take noticehow the lawyers, statesmen, and the clergy of every side bestirredthemselves, rather to hinder than promote the peace.

  There had been a treaty at Oxford some time before, where theParliament insisting that the king should pass a bill to abolishEpiscopacy, quit the militia, abandon several of his faithful servantsto be exempted from pardon, and making several other most extravagantdemands, nothing was done, but the treaty broke off, both partiesbeing rather farther exasperated, than inclined to hearken toconditions.

  However, soon after the success in the west, his Majesty, to let themsee that victory had not puffed him up so as to make him reject thepeace, sends a message to the Parliament, to put them in mind ofmessages of like nature which they had slighted; and to let them know,that notwithstanding he had beaten their forces, he was yet willing tohearken to a reasonable proposal for putting an end to the war.

  The Parliament pretended the king, in his message, did not treat withthem as a legal Parliament, and so made hesitations; but after longdebates and delays they agreed to draw up propositions for peace to besent to the king. As this message was sent to the Houses about August,I think they made it the middle of November before they brought thepropositions for peace; and, when they brought them, they had nopower to enter either upon a treaty, or so much as preliminaries for atreaty, only to deliver the letter, and receive an answer.

  However, such were the circumstances of affairs at this time, that theking was uneasy to see himself thus treated, and take no notice of it:the king returned an answer to the propositions, and proposed a treatyby commissioners which the Parliament appointed.

  Three months more were spent in naming commissioners. There was muchtime spent in this treaty, but little done; the commissioners debatedchiefly the article of religion, and of the militia; in the latterthey were very likely to agree, in the former both sides seemedtoo positive. The king would by no means abandon Episcopacy nor theParliament Presbytery; for both in their opinion were _jure divino_.

  The commissioners finding this point hardest to adjust, went fromit to that of the militia; but the time spinning out, the king'scommissioners demanded longer time for the treaty; the other sent upfor instructions, but the House refused to lengthen out the time.

  This was thought an insolence upon the king, and gave all good peoplea detestation of such haughty behaviour; and thus the hopes of peacevanished, both sides prepared for war with as much eagerness asbefore.

  The Parliament was employed at this time in what they calleda-modelling their army; that is to say, that now the Independent party[was] beginning to prevail; and, as they outdid all the others intheir resolution of carrying on the war to all extremities, so theywere both the more vigorous and more politic party in carrying it on.

  Indeed, the war was after this carried on with greater animosity thanever, and the generals pushed forward with a vigour that, as ithad something in it unusual, so it told us plainly from this time,whatever they did before, they now pushed at the ruin even of themonarchy itself.

  All this while also the war went on, and though the Parliament had nosettled army, yet their regiments and troops were always in action;and the sword was at work in every part of the kingdom.

  Among an infinite number of party skirmishings and fights this winter,one happened which nearly concerned me, which was the surprise of thetown and castle of Shrewsbury. Colonel Mitton, with about 1200 horseand foot, having intelligence with some people in the town, on aSunday morning early broke into the town and took it, castle and all.The loss for the quality, more than the
number, was very great tothe king's affairs. They took there fifteen pieces of cannon, PrinceMaurice's magazine of arms and ammunition, Prince Rupert's baggage,above fifty persons of quality and officers. There was not aboveeight or ten men killed on both sides, for the town was surprised, notstormed. I had a particular loss in this action; for all the men andhorses my father had got together for the recruiting my regiment werehere lost and dispersed, and, which was the worse, my father happeningto be then in the town, was taken prisoner, and carried to BeestonCastle in Cheshire.

  I was quartered all this winter at Banbury, and went little abroad;nor had we any action till the latter end of February, when I wasordered to march to Leicester with Sir Marmaduke Langdale, in order,as we thought, to raise a body of men in that county and Staffordshireto join the king.

  We lay at Daventry one night, and continuing our march to pass theriver above Northampton, that town being possessed by the enemy, weunderstood a party of Northampton forces were abroad, and intended toattack us. Accordingly, in the afternoon our scouts brought us wordthe enemy were quartered in some villages on the road to Coventry. Ourcommander, thinking it much better to set upon them in their quarters,than to wait for them in the field, resolves to attack them early inthe morning before they were aware of it. We refreshed ourselves inthe field for that day, and, getting into a great wood near the enemy,we stayed there all night, till almost break of day, without beingdiscovered.

  In the morning very early we heard the enemy's trumpets sound tohorse. This roused us to look abroad, and, sending out a scout, hebrought us word a part of the enemy was at hand. We were vexed tobe so disappointed, but finding their party small enough to be dealtwith, Sir Marmaduke ordered me to charge them with 300 horse and 200dragoons, while he at the same time entered the town. Accordingly Ilay still till they came to the very skirt of the wood where I wasposted, when I saluted them with a volley from my dragoons out of thewood, and immediately showed myself with my horse on their front readyto charge them. They appeared not to be surprised, and received ourcharge with great resolution; and, being above 400 men, they pushed mevigorously in their turn, putting my men into some disorder. In thisextremity I sent to order my dragoons to charge them in the flank,which they did with great bravery, and the other still maintained thefight with desperate resolution. There was no want of courage in ourmen on both sides, but our dragoons had the advantage, and at lastrouted them, and drove them back to the village. Here Sir MarmadukeLangdale had his hands full too, for my firing had alarmed the townsadjacent, that when he came into the town he found them all in arms,and, contrary to his expectation, two regiments of foot, with about500 horse more. As Sir Marmaduke had no foot, only horse and dragoons,this was a surprise to him; but he caused his dragoons to enter thetown and charge the foot, while his horse secured the avenues of thetown.

  The dragoons bravely attacked the foot, and Sir Marmaduke fallingin with his horse, the fight was obstinate and very bloody, when thehorse that I had routed came flying into the street of the village,and my men at their heels. Immediately I left the pursuit, and fellin with all my force to the assistance of my friends, and, after anobstinate resistance, we routed the whole party; we killed about700 men, took 350, 27 officers, 100 arms, all their baggage, and 200horses, and continued our march to Harborough, where we halted torefresh ourselves.

  Between Harborough and Leicester we met with a party of 800 dragoonsof the Parliament forces. They, found themselves too few to attackus, and therefore to avoid us they had gotten into a small wood; butperceiving themselves discovered, they came boldly out, and placedthemselves at the entrance into a lane, lining both sides of thehedges with their shot. We immediately attacked them, beat them fromtheir hedges, beat them into the wood, and out of the wood again,and forced them at last to a downright run away, on foot, among theenclosures, where we could not follow them, killed about 100 of them,and took 250 prisoners, with all their horses, and came that night toLeicester. When we came to Leicester, and had taken up our quarters,Sir Marmaduke Langdale sent for me to sup with him, and told methat he had a secret commission in his pocket, which his Majesty hadcommanded him not to open till he came to Leicester; that now he hadsent for me to open it together, that we might know what it was wewere to do, and to consider how to do it; so pulling out his sealedorders, we found we were to get what force we could together, and acertain number of carriages with ammunition, which the governor ofLeicester was to deliver us, and a certain quantity of provision,especially corn and salt, and to relieve Newark. This town had beenlong besieged. The fortifications of the place, together with itssituation, had rendered it the strongest place in England; and, as itwas the greatest pass in England, so it was of vast consequence to theking's affairs. There was in it a garrison of brave old rugged boys,fellows that, like Count Tilly's Germans, had iron faces, and they haddefended themselves with extraordinary bravery a great while, but werereduced to an exceeding strait for want of provisions.

  Accordingly we received the ammunition and provision, and away we wentfor Newark; about Melton Mowbray, Colonel Rossiter set upon us, withabove 3000 men; we were about the same number, having 2500 horse, and800 dragoons. We had some foot, but they were still at Harborough, andwere ordered to come after us.

  Rossiter, like a brave officer as he was, charged us with great fury,and rather outdid us in number, while we defended ourselves with allthe eagerness we could, and withal gave him to understand we werenot so soon to be beaten as he expected. While the fight continueddoubtful, especially on our side, our people, who had charge of thecarriages and provisions, began to enclose our flanks with them, asif we had been marching, which, though it was done without orders, hadtwo very good effects, and which did us extraordinary service. First,it secured us from being charged in the flank, which Rossiter hadtwice attempted; and secondly, it secured our carriages from beingplundered, which had spoiled our whole expedition. Being thusenclosed, we fought with great security; and though Rossiter madethree desperate charges upon us; he could never break us. Our menreceived him with so much courage, and kept their order so well, thatthe enemy, finding it impossible to force us, gave it over, and leftus to pursue our orders. We did not offer to chase them, but contentedenough to have repulsed and beaten them off, and our business being torelieve Newark, we proceeded.

  If we are to reckon by the enemy's usual method, we got the victory,because we kept the field, and had the pillage of their dead; butotherwise, neither side had any great cause to boast. We lost about150 men, and near as many hurt; they left 170 on the spot, and carriedoff some. How many they had wounded we could not tell; we got seventyor eighty horses, which helped to remount some of our men that hadlost theirs in the fight. We had, however, this advantage, that wewere to march on immediately after this service, the enemy only toretire to their quarters, which was but hard by. This was an injury toour wounded men, who we were after obliged to leave at Belvoir Castle,and from thence we advanced to Newark.

  Our business at Newark was to relieve the place, and this we resolvedto do whatever it cost, though, at the same time, we resolved not tofight unless we were forced to it. The town was rather blocked up thanbesieged; the garrison was strong, but ill-provided; we had sent themword of our coming to them, and our orders to relieve them, and theyproposed some measures for our doing it. The chief strength of theenemy lay on the other side of the river; but they having also somenotice of our design, had sent over forces to strengthen their leagueron this side. The garrison had often surprised them by sallies, andindeed had chiefly subsisted for some time by what they brought in onthis manner.

  Sir Marmaduke Langdale, who was our general for the expedition, wasfor a general attempt to raise the siege, but I had persuaded him offof that; first, because, if we should be beaten, as might be probable,we then lost the town. Sir Marmaduke briskly replied, "A soldier oughtnever to suppose he shall be beaten." "But, sir," says I, "you'll getmore honour by relieving the town, than by beating them. One will bea credit to your conduct, as
the other will be to your courage; and ifyou think you can beat them, you may do it afterward, and then if youare mistaken, the town is nevertheless secured, and half your victorygained."

  He was prevailed with to adhere to this advice, and accordingly weappeared before the town about two hours before night. The horse drewup before the enemy's works; the enemy drew up within their works, andseeing no foot, expected when our dragoons would dismount and attackthem. They were in the right to let us attack them, because of theadvantage of their batteries and works, if that had been our design;but, as we intended only to amuse them, this caution of theirseffected our design; for, while we thus faced them with our horse, tworegiments of foot, which came up to us but the night before, andwas all the infantry we had, with the waggons of provisions, and 500dragoons, taking a compass clean round the town, posted themselves onthe lower side of the town by the river. Upon a signal the garrisonagreed on before, they sallied out at this very juncture with all themen they could spare, and dividing themselves in two parties, whileone party moved to the left to meet our relief, the other party fellon upon part of that body which faced us. We kept in motion, and uponthis signal advanced to their works, and our dragoons fired uponthem, and the horse, wheeling and counter-marching often, kept themcontinually expecting to be attacked. By this means the enemy werekept employed, and our foot, with the waggons, appearing on thatquarter where they were least expected, easily defeated the advancedguards and forced that post, where, entering the leaguer, the otherpart of the garrison, who had sallied that way, came up to them,received the waggons, and the dragoons entered with them into thetown. That party which we faced on the other side of the works knewnothing of what was done till all was over; the garrison retreated ingood order, and we drew off, having finished what we came for withoutfighting. Thus we plentifully stored the town with all things wanting,and with an addition of 500 dragoons to their garrison; after which wemarched away without fighting a stroke.

  Our next orders were to relieve Pontefract Castle, another garrisonof the king's, which had been besieged ever since a few days after thefight at Marston Moor, by the Lord Fairfax, Sir Thomas Fairfax, andother generals in their turn. By the way we were joined with 800 horseout of Derbyshire, and some foot, so many as made us about 4500 men inall.

  Colonel Forbes, a Scotchman, commanded at the siege, in the absence ofthe Lord Fairfax. The colonel had sent to my lord for more troops, andhis lordship was gathering his forces to come up to him, but he waspleased to come too late. We came up with the enemy's leaguer aboutthe break of day, and having been discovered by their scouts, they,with more courage than discretion, drew out to meet us. We saw noreason to avoid them, being stronger in horse than they; and though wehad but a few foot, we had 1000 dragoons, which helped us out. We hadplaced our horse and foot throughout in one line, with two reservesof horse, and between every division of horse a division of foot, onlythat on the extremes of our wings there were two parties of horseon each point by themselves, and the dragoons in the centre on foot.Their foot charged us home, and stood with push of pike a great while;but their horse charging our horse and musketeers, and being closedon the flanks, with those two extended troops on our wings, theywere presently disordered, and fled out of the field. The foot, thusdeserted, were charged on every side and broken. They retreated stillfighting, and in good order for a while; but the garrison sallyingupon them at the same time, and being followed close by our horse,they were scattered, entirely routed, and most of them killed. TheLord Fairfax was come with his horse as far as Ferrybridge, but thefight was over, and all he could do was to rally those that fled, andsave some of their carriages, which else had fallen into our hands. Wedrew up our little army in order of battle the next day, expecting theLord Fairfax would have charged us; but his lordship was so far fromany such thoughts that he placed a party of dragoons, with orders tofortify the pass at Ferrybridge, to prevent our falling upon him inhis retreat, which he needed not have done; for, having raised thesiege of Pontefract, our business was done, we had nothing to say tohim, unless we had been strong enough to stay.

  We lost not above thirty men in this action, and the enemy 300, withabout 150 prisoners, one piece of cannon, all their ammunition, 1000arms, and most of their baggage, and Colonel Lambert was once takenprisoner, being wounded, but got off again.

  We brought no relief for the garrison, but the opportunity to furnishthemselves out of the country, which they did very plentifully. Theammunition taken from the enemy was given to them, which they wanted,and was their due, for they had seized it in the sally they made,before the enemy was quite defeated.

  I cannot omit taking notice on all occasions how exceeding serviceablethis method was of posting musketeers in the intervals, among thehorse, in all this war. I persuaded our generals to it as much aspossible, and I never knew a body of horse beaten that did so: yet Ihad great difficulty to prevail upon our people to believe it, thoughit was taught me by the greatest general in the world, viz., the Kingof Sweden. Prince Rupert did it at the battle of Marston Moor; and hadthe Earl of Newcastle not been obstinate against it in his right wing,as I observed before, the day had not been lost. In discoursing thiswith Sir Marmaduke Langdale, I had related several examples of theserviceableness of these small bodies of firemen, and with greatdifficulty brought him to agree, telling him I would be answerablefor the success. But after the fight, he told me plainly he saw theadvantage of it, and would never fight otherwise again if he had anyfoot to place. So having relieved these two places, we hastened bylong marches through Derbyshire, to join Prince Rupert on the edge ofShropshire and Cheshire. We found Colonel Rossiter had followed us ata distance ever since the business at Melton Mowbray, but never caredto attack us, and we found he did the like still. Our general wouldfain have been doing with him again, but we found him too shy. Oncewe laid a trap for him at Dovebridge, between Derby andBurton-upon-Trent, the body being marched two days before. Threehundred dragoons were left to guard the bridge, as if we were afraidhe should fall upon us. Upon this we marched, as I said, on to Burton,and the next day, fetching a compass round, came to a village nearTitbury Castle, whose name I forgot, where we lay still expecting ourdragoons would be attacked.

  Accordingly, the colonel, strengthened with some troops of horse fromYorkshire, comes up to the bridge, and finding some dragoons posted,advances to charge them. The dragoons immediately get a-horseback, andrun for it, as they were ordered. But the old lad was not to be caughtso, for he halts immediately at the bridge, and would not come overtill he had sent three or four flying parties abroad to discover thecountry. One of these parties fell into our hands, and received butcoarse entertainment. Finding the plot would not take, we appeared anddrew up in view of the bridge, but he would not stir. So we continuedour march into Cheshire, where we joined Prince Rupert and PrinceMaurice, making together a fine body, being above 8000 horse anddragoons.

  This was the best and most successful expedition I was in during thiswar. 'Twas well concerted, and executed with as much expedition andconduct as could be desired, and the success was answerable to it. Andindeed, considering the season of the year (for we set out from Oxfordthe latter end of February), the ways bad, and the season wet, itwas a terrible march of above 200 miles, in continual action, andcontinually dodged and observed by a vigilant enemy, and at a timewhen the north was overrun by their armies, and the Scots wantingemployment for their forces. Yet in less than twenty-three days wemarched 200 miles, fought the enemy in open field four times, relievedone garrison besieged, and raised the siege of another, and joined ourfriends at last in safety.

  The enemy was in great pain for Sir William Brereton and his forces,and expresses rode night and day to the Scots in the north, and to theparties in Lancashire to come to his help. The prince, who used to berather too forward to fight than otherwise, could not be persuaded tomake use of this opportunity, but loitered, if I may be allowed to sayso, till the Scots, with a brigade of horse and 2000 foot, had joinedhim; and then 'twas not
thought proper to engage them.

  I took this opportunity to go to Shrewsbury to visit my father, whowas a prisoner of war there, getting a pass from the enemy's governor.They allowed him the liberty of the town, and sometimes to go to hisown house upon his parole, so that his confinement was not very muchto his personal injury. But this, together with the charges he hadbeen at in raising the regiment, and above L20,000 in money and plate,which at several times he had lent, or given rather to the king, hadreduced our family to very ill circumstances; and now they talked ofcutting down his woods.

  I had a great deal of discourse with my father on this affair; and,finding him extremely concerned, I offered to go to the king anddesire his leave to go to London and treat about his composition, orto render myself a prisoner in his stead, while he went up himself.In this difficulty I treated with the governor of the town, who verycivilly offered me his pass to go for London, which I accepted, and,waiting on Prince Rupert, who was then at Worcester, I acquainted himwith my design. The prince was unwilling I should go to London;but told me he had some prisoners of the Parliament's friends inCumberland, and he would get an exchange for my father. I told himif he would give me his word for it I knew I might depend upon it,otherwise there was so many of the king's party in their hands, thathis Majesty was tired with solicitations for exchanges, for we neverhad a prisoner but there was ten offers of exchanges for him. Theprince told me I should depend upon him; and he was as good as hisword quickly after.

  While the prince lay at Worcester he made an incursion intoHerefordshire, and having made some of the gentlemen prisoners,brought them to Worcester; and though it was an action which had notbeen usual, they being persons not in arms, yet the like being myfather's case, who was really not in commission, nor in any militaryservice, having resigned his regiment three years before to me, theprince insisted on exchanging them for such as the Parliament hadin custody in like circumstances. The gentlemen seeing no remedy,solicited their own case at the Parliament, and got it passed intheir behalf; and by this means my father got his liberty, and by theassistance of the Earl of Denbigh got leave to come to London to makea composition as a delinquent for his estate. This they charged atL7000, but by the assistance of the same noble person he got off forL4000. Some members of the committee moved very kindly that my fathershould oblige me to quit the king's service, but that, as a thingwhich might be out of his power, was not insisted on.

  The modelling the Parliament army took them up all this winter, andwe were in great hopes the divisions which appeared amongst them mighthave weakened their party; but when they voted Sir Thomas Fairfax tobe general, I confess I was convinced the king's affairs were lost anddesperate. Sir Thomas, abating the zeal of his party, and the mistakenopinion of his cause, was the fittest man amongst them to undertakethe charge. He was a complete general, strict in his discipline, waryin conduct, fearless in action, unwearied in the fatigue of thewar, and withal, of a modest, noble, generous disposition. We allapprehended danger from him, and heartily wished him of our own side;and the king was so sensible, though he would not discover it, thatwhen an account was brought him of the choice they had made, hereplied, "he was sorry for it; he had rather it had been anybody thanhe."

  The first attempts of this new general and new army were at Oxford,which, by the neighbourhood of a numerous garrison in Abingdon, beganto be very much straitened for provisions; and the new forces underCromwell and Skippon, one lieutenant-general, the other major-generalto Fairfax, approaching with a design to block it up, the king leftthe place, supposing his absence would draw them away, as it soon did.

  The king resolving to leave Oxford, marches from thence with all hisforces, the garrison excepted, with design to have gone to Bristol;but the plague was in Bristol, which altered the measures, and changedthe course of the king's designs, so he marched for Worcester aboutthe beginning of June 1645. The foot, with a train of forty pieces ofcannon, marching into Worcester, the horse stayed behind some time inGloucestershire.

  The first action our army did, was to raise the siege of Chester; SirWilliam Brereton had besieged it, or rather blocked it up, and whenhis Majesty came to Worcester, he sent Prince Rupert with 4000 horseand dragoons, with orders to join some foot out of Wales, to raise thesiege; but Sir William thought fit to withdraw, and not stay for them,and the town was freed without fighting. The governor took care inthis interval to furnish himself with all things necessary for anothersiege; and, as for ammunition and other necessaries, he was in nowant.

  I was sent with a party into Staffordshire, with design to intercepta convoy of stores coming from London, for the use of Sir WilliamBrereton; but they having some notice of the design, stopped, and wentout of the road to Burton-upon-Trent, and so I missed them; but thatwe might not come back quite empty, we attacked Hawkesley House, andtook it, where we got good booty, and brought eighty prisoners back toWorcester. From Worcester the king advanced into Shropshire, and tookhis headquarters at Bridgnorth. This was a very happy march of theking's, and had his Majesty proceeded, he had certainly cleared thenorth once more of his enemies, for the country was generally for him.At his advancing so far as Bridgnorth, Sir William Brereton fled upinto Lancashire; the Scots brigades who were with him retreated intothe north, while yet the king was above forty miles from them, and allthings lay open for conquest. The new generals, Fairfax and Cromwell,lay about Oxford, preparing as if they would besiege it, and gavethe king's army so much leisure, that his Majesty might have been atNewcastle before they could have been half way to him. But Heaven,when the ruin of a person or party is determined, always so infatuatestheir counsels as to make them instrumental to it themselves.

  The king let slip this great opportunity, as some thought, intendingto break into the associated counties of Northampton, Cambridge,Norfolk, where he had some interests forming. What the design was,we knew not, but the king turns eastward, and marches intoLeicestershire, and having treated the country but very indifferently,as having deserved no better of us, laid siege to Leicester.

  This was but a short siege; for the king, resolving not to lose time,fell on with his great guns, and having beaten down their works, ourfoot entered, after a vigorous resistance, and took the town by storm.There was some blood shed here, the town being carried by assault; butit was their own faults; for after the town was taken, the soldiersand townsmen obstinately fought us in the market-place; insomuch thatthe horse was called to enter the town to clear the streets. But thiswas not all; I was commanded to advance with these horse, being threeregiments, and to enter the town; the foot, who were engaged in thestreets, crying out, "Horse, horse." Immediately I advanced to thegate, for we were drawn up about musket-shot from the works, to havesupported our foot in case of a sally. Having seized the gate, Iplaced a guard of horse there, with orders to let nobody pass inor out, and dividing my troops, rode up by two ways towards themarket-place. The garrison defending themselves in the market-place,and in the churchyard with great obstinacy, killed us a great manymen; but as soon as our horse appeared they demanded quarter, whichour foot refused them in the first heat, as is frequent in allnations, in like cases, till at last they threw down their arms, andyielded at discretion; and then I can testify to the world, that fairquarter was given them. I am the more particular in this relation,having been an eye-witness of the action, because the king wasreproached in all the public libels, with which those times abounded,for having put a great many to death, and hanged the committee ofthe Parliament, and some Scots, in cold blood, which was a notoriousforgery; and as I am sure there was no such thing done, so I mustacknowledge I never saw any inclination in his Majesty to cruelty, orto act anything which was not practised by the general laws of war,and by men of honour in all nations.

  But the matter of fact, in respect to the garrison, was as I haverelated; and, if they had thrown down their arms sooner, they had hadmercy sooner; but it was not for a conquering army, entering a town bystorm, to offer conditions of quarter in the streets.

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; Another circumstance was, that a great many of the inhabitants, bothmen and women, were killed, which is most true; and the case was thus:the inhabitants, to show their over-forward zeal to defend the town,fought in the breach; nay, the very women, to the honour of theLeicester ladies, if they like it, officiously did their parts; andafter the town was taken, and when, if they had had any brains intheir zeal, they would have kept their houses, and been quiet, theyfired upon our men out of their windows, and from the tops of theirhouses, and threw tiles upon their heads; and I had several of my menwounded so, and seven or eight killed. This exasperated us to the lastdegree; and, finding one house better manned than ordinary, and manyshot fired at us out of the windows, I caused my men to attack it,resolved to make them an example for the rest; which they did, andbreaking open the doors, they killed all they found there, withoutdistinction; and I appeal to the world if they were to blame. If theParliament committee, or the Scots deputies were here, they ought tohave been quiet, since the town was taken; but they began with us,and, I think, brought it upon themselves. This is the whole case, sofar as came within my knowledge, for which his Majesty was so muchabused.

  We took here Colonel Gray and Captain Hacker, and about 300 prisoners,and about 300 more were killed. This was the last day of May 1645.

  His Majesty having given over Oxford for lost, continued here somedays, viewed the town, ordered the fortifications to be augmented,and prepares to make it the seat of war. But the Parliament, roused atthis appearance of the king's army, orders their general to raise thesiege of Oxford, where the garrison had, in a sally, ruined some oftheir works, and killed them 150 men, taking several prisoners, andcarrying them with them into the city; and orders him to march towardsLeicester, to observe the king.

  The king had now a small, but gallant army, all brave tried soldiers,and seemed eager to engage the new-modelled army; and his Majesty,hearing that Sir Thomas Fairfax, having raised the siege of Oxford,advanced towards him, fairly saves him the trouble of a long march,and meets him half way.

  The army lay at Daventry, and Fairfax at Towcester, about eight milesoff. Here the king sends away 600 horse, with 3000 head of cattle, torelieve his people in Oxford; the cattle he might have spared betterthan the men. The king having thus victualled Oxford, changes hisresolution of fighting Fairfax, to whom Cromwell was now joined with4000 men, or was within a day's march, and marches northward. Thiswas unhappy counsel, because late given. Had we marched northwardat first, we had done it; but thus it was. Now we marched with atriumphing enemy at our heels, and at Naseby their advanced partiesattacked our rear. The king, upon this, alters his resolution again,and resolves to fight, and at midnight calls us up at Harborough tocome to a council of war. Fate and the king's opinion determined thecouncil of war; and 'twas resolved to fight. Accordingly the van, inwhich was Prince Rupert's brigade of horse, of which my regiment was apart, counter-marched early in the morning.

  By five o'clock in the morning, the whole army, in order of battle,began to descry the enemy from the rising grounds, about a mile fromNaseby, and moved towards them. They were drawn up on a little ascentin a large common fallow field, in one line extended from one side ofthe field to the other, the field something more than a mile over, ourarmy in the same order, in one line, with the reserve.

  The king led the main battle of foot, Prince Rupert the right wing ofthe horse, and Sir Marmaduke Langdale the left. Of the enemy Fairfaxand Skippon led the body, Cromwell and Rossiter the right, and Iretonthe left, the numbers of both armies so equal, as not to differ 500men, save that the king had most horse by about 1000, and Fairfax mostfoot by about 500. The number was in each army about 18,000 men. Thearmies coming close up, the wings engaged first. The prince withhis right wing charged with his wonted fury, and drove all theParliament's wing of horse, one division excepted, clear out of thefield; Ireton, who commanded this wing, give him his due, ralliedoften, and fought like a lion; but our wing bore down all before them,and pursued them with a terrible execution.

  Ireton seeing one division of his horse left, repaired to them, andkeeping his ground, fell foul of a brigade of our foot, who coming upto the head of the line, he like a madman charges them with his horse.But they with their pikes tore him to pieces; so that this divisionwas entirely ruined. Ireton himself, thrust through the thigh witha pike, wounded in the face with a halberd, was unhorsed and takenprisoner.

  Cromwell, who commanded the Parliament's right wing, charged SirMarmaduke Langdale with extraordinary fury, but he, an old triedsoldier, stood firm, and received the charge with equal gallantry,exchanging all their shot, carabines and pistols and then fell onsword in hand. Rossiter and Whalley had the better on the point ofthe wing, and routed two divisions of horse, pushed them behind thereserves, where they rallied and charged again, but were at lastdefeated; the rest of the horse, now charged in the flank, retreatedfighting, and were pushed behind the reserves of foot.

  While this was doing the foot engaged with equal fierceness, and fortwo hours there was a terrible fire. The king's foot, backed withgallant officers, and full of rage at the rout of their horse,bore down the enemy's brigade led by Skippon. The old man, wounded,bleeding, retreats to their reserves. All the foot, except thegeneral's brigade, were thus driven into the reserves, where theirofficers rallied them, and bring them on to a fresh charge; and herethe horse, having driven our horse above a quarter of a mile from thefoot, face about, and fall in on the rear of the foot.

  Had our right wing done thus, the day had been secured; but PrinceRupert, according to his custom, following the flying enemy, neverconcerned himself with the safety of those behind; and yet he returnedsooner than he had done in like cases too. At our return we foundall in confusion, our foot broken, all but one brigade, which, thoughcharged in the front, flank, and rear, could not be broken till SirThomas Fairfax himself came up to the charge with fresh men, and thenthey were rather cut in pieces than beaten, for they stood with theirpikes charged every way to the last extremity.

  In this condition, at the distance of a quarter of a mile, we saw theking rallying his horse, and preparing to renew the fight; and ourwing of horse coming up to him, gave him opportunity to draw up alarge body of horse, so large that all the enemy's horse facing usstood still and looked on, but did not think fit to charge us tilltheir foot, who had entirely broken our main battle, were put in orderagain, and brought up to us.

  The officers about the king advised his Majesty rather to draw off;for, since our foot were lost, it would be too much odds to expose thehorse to the fury of their whole army, and would but be sacrificinghis best troops without any hopes of success. The king, though withgreat regret at the loss of his foot, yet seeing there was no otherhope, took this advice, and retreated in good order to Harborough, andfrom thence to Leicester.

  This was the occasion of the enemy having so great a number ofprisoners; for the horse being thus gone off, the foot had no meansto make their retreat, and were obliged to yield themselves.Commissary-General Ireton being taken by a captain of foot, makes thecaptain his prisoner, to save his life, and gives him his liberty forhis courtesy before.

  Cromwell and Rossiter, with all the enemy's horse, followed us as faras Leicester, and killed all that they could lay hold on stragglingfrom the body, but durst not attempt to charge us in a body. Theking, expecting the enemy would come to Leicester, removes toAshby-de-la-Zouch, where we had some time to recollect ourselves.

  This was the most fatal action of the whole war, not so much forthe loss of our cannon, ammunition, and baggage, of which the enemyboasted so much, but as it was impossible for the king ever toretrieve it. The foot, the best that ever he was master of, couldnever be supplied; his army in the west was exposed to certain ruin,the north overrun with the Scots; in short, the case grew desperate,and the king was once upon the point of bidding us all disband, andshift for ourselves.

  We lost in this fight not above 2000 slain, and the Parliament nearas many, but the prisoners were a great number; the w
hole body of footbeing, as I have said, dispersed, there were 4500 prisoners, besides400 officers, 2000 horses, 12 pieces of cannon, 40 barrels of powder,all the king's baggage, coaches, most of his servants, and hissecretary, with his cabinet of letters, of which the Parliamentmade great improvement, and basely enough caused his privateletters--between his Majesty and the queen, her Majesty's letters tothe king, and a great deal of such stuff--to be printed.

  After this fatal blow, being retreated, as I have said, toAshby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, the king ordered us to divide;his Majesty, with a body of horse, about 3000, went to Lichfield, andthrough Cheshire into North Wales, and Sir Marmaduke Langdale, withabout 2500, went to Newark.

  The king remained in Wales for several months; and though the lengthof the war had almost drained that country of men, yet the kingraised a great many men there, recruited his horse regiments, and gottogether six or seven regiments of foot, which seemed to look like thebeginning of a new army.

  I had frequent discourses with his Majesty in this low ebb of hisaffairs, and he would often wish he had not exposed his army atNaseby. I took the freedom once to make a proposition to his Majesty,which, if it had taken effect, I verily believe would have given a newturn to his affairs; and that was, at once to slight all his garrisonsin the kingdom, and give private orders to all the soldiers in everyplace, to join in bodies, and meet at two general rendezvous, which Iwould have appointed to be, one at Bristol, and one at West Chester.I demonstrated how easily all the forces might reach these two places;and both being strong and wealthy places, and both seaports, he wouldhave a free communication by sea with Ireland, and with his friendsabroad; and having Wales entirely his own, he might yet have anopportunity to make good terms for himself, or else have another fairfield with the enemy.

  Upon a fair calculation of his troops in several garrisons and smallbodies dispersed about, I convinced the king, by his own accounts,that he might have two complete armies, each of 25,000 foot, 8000horse, and 2000 dragoons; that the Lord Goring and the Lord Hoptonmight ship all their forces, and come by sea in two tides, and bewith him in a shorter time than the enemy could follow. With two suchbodies he might face the enemy, and make a day of it; but now his menwere only sacrificed, and eaten up by piecemeal in a party-war,and spent their lives and estates to do him no service. That if theParliament garrisoned the towns and castles he should quit, they wouldlessen their army, and not dare to see him in the field: and if theydid not, but left them open, then 'twould be no loss to him, but hemight possess them as often as he pleased.

  This advice I pressed with such arguments, that the king was oncegoing to despatch orders for the doing it; but to be irresolute incounsel is always the companion of a declining fortune; the king wasdoubtful, and could not resolve till it was too late.

  And yet, though the king's forces were very low, his Majesty wasresolved to make one adventure more, and it was a strange one; for,with but a handful of men, he made a desperate march, almost 250 milesin the middle of the whole kingdom, compassed about with armies andparties innumerable, traversed the heart of his enemy's country,entered their associated counties, where no army had ever yet come,and in spite of all their victorious troops facing and following him,alarmed even London itself and returned safe to Oxford.

  His Majesty continued in Wales from the battle at Naseby till the 5thor 6th of August, and till he had an account from all parts of theprogress of his enemies, and the posture of his own affairs.

  Here we found, that the enemy being hard pressed in Somersetshire bythe Lord Goring, and Lord Hopton's forces, who had taken Bridgewater,and distressed Taunton, which was now at the point of surrender,they had ordered Fairfax and Cromwell, and the whole army, to marchwestward to relieve the town; which they did, and Goring's troops wereworsted, and himself wounded at the fight at Langport.

  The Scots, who were always the dead weight upon the king's affairs,having no more work to do in the north, were, at the Parliament'sdesire, advanced southward, and then ordered away towards South Wales,and were set down to the siege of Hereford. Here this famous Scotcharmy spent several months in a fruitless siege, ill provided ofammunition, and worse with money; and having sat near three monthsbefore the town, and done little but eaten up the country round them,upon the repeated accounts of the progress of the Marquis of Montrosein that kingdom, and pressing instances of their countrymen, theyresolved to raise their siege, and go home to relieve their friends.

  The king, who was willing to be rid of the Scots, upon good terms, andtherefore to hasten them, and lest they should pretend to push on thesiege to take the town first, gives it out, that he was resolved withall his forces to go into Scotland, and join Montrose; and so havingsecured Scotland, to renew the war from thence.

  And accordingly his Majesty marches northwards, with a body of 4000horse; and, had the king really done this, and with that body of horsemarched away (for he had the start of all his enemies, by above afortnight's march), he had then had the fairest opportunity for ageneral turn of all his affairs, that he ever had in all the latterpart of this war. For Montrose, a gallant daring soldier, who fromthe least shadow of force in the farthest corner of this country, had,rolling like a snowball, spread all over Scotland, was come intothe south parts, and had summoned Edinburgh, frighted away theirstatesmen, beaten their soldiers at Dundee and other places; andletters and messengers in the heels of one another, repeated theircries to their brethren in England, to lay before them the sadcondition of the country, and to hasten the army to their relief. TheScots lords of the enemy's party fled to Berwick, and the chancellorof Scotland goes himself to General Leslie, to press him for help.

  In this extremity of affairs Scotland lay when we marched out ofWales. The Scots, at the siege of Hereford, hearing the king was gonenorthward with his horse, conclude he was gone directly for Scotland,and immediately send Leslie with 4000 horse and foot to follow, butdid not yet raise the siege. But the king, still irresolute, turnsaway to the eastward, and comes to Lichfield, where he showed hisresentments at Colonel Hastings for his easy surrender of Leicester.

  In this march the enemy took heart. We had troops of horse on everyside upon us like hounds started at a fresh stag. Leslie, with theScots, and a strong body followed in our rear, Major-General Poyntz,Sir John Gell, Colonel Rossiter, and others in our way; they pretendedto be 10,000 horse, and yet never durst face us. The Scots made oneattempt upon a troop which stayed a little behind, and took someprisoners; but when a regiment of our horse faced them they retired.At a village near Lichfield another party of about 1000 horse attackedmy regiment. We were on the left of the army, and at a little toofar a distance. I happened to be with the king at that time, andmy lieutenant-colonel with me, so that the major had charge of theregiment. He made a very handsome defence, but sent messengers forspeedy relief. We were on a march, and therefore all ready, and theking orders me a regiment of dragoons and 300 horse, and the bodyhalted to bring us off, not knowing how strong the enemy might be.When I came to the place I found my major hard laid to, but fightinglike a lion. The enemy had broke in upon him in two places, and hadrouted one troop, cutting them off from the body, and had made themall prisoners. Upon this I fell in with the 300 horse, and clearedmy major from a party who charged him in the flank; the dragoonsimmediately lighting, one party of them comes up on my wing, andsaluting the enemy with their muskets, put them to a stand, the otherparty of dragoons wheeling to the left endeavouring to get behindthem. The enemy, perceiving they should be overpowered, retreated inas good order as they could, but left us most of our prisoners, andabout thirty of their own. We lost about fifteen of our men, andthe enemy about forty, chiefly by the fire of our dragoons in theirretreat.

  In this posture we continued our march; and though the king haltedat Lichfield--which was a dangerous article, having so many of theenemy's troops upon his hands, and this time gave them opportunity toget into a body--yet the Scots, with their General Leslie, resolvingfor the north, the rest of the troops were
not able to face us, till,having ravaged the enemy's country through Staffordshire, Warwick,Leicester, and Nottinghamshire, we came to the leaguer before Newark.

  The king was once more in the mind to have gone into Scotland, andcalled a council of war to that purpose; but then it was resolved byall hands that it would be too late to attempt it, for the Scots andMajor-General Poyntz were before us, and several strong bodiesof horse in our rear; and there was no venturing now, unless anyadvantage presented to rout one of those parties which attended us.

  Upon these and like considerations we resolved for Newark; on ourapproach the forces which blocked up that town drew off, being tooweak to oppose us, for the king was now above 5000 horse and dragoons,besides 300 horse and dragoons he took with him from Newark.

  We halted at Newark to assist the garrison, or give them time ratherto furnish themselves from the country with what they wanted, whichthey were very diligent in doing; for in two days' time they filleda large island which lies under the town, between the two branches ofthe Trent, with sheep, oxen, cows, and horses, an incredible number;and our affairs being now something desperate, we were not verynice in our usage of the country, for really if it was not with aresolution both to punish the enemy and enrich ourselves, no man cangive any rational account why this desperate journey was undertaken.'Tis certain the Newarkers, in the respite they gained by our coming,got above L50,000 from the country round them in corn, cattle, money,and other plunder.

  From hence we broke into Lincolnshire, and the king lay at BelvoirCastle, and from Belvoir Castle to Stamford. The swiftness of ourmarch was a terrible surprise to the enemy; for our van being at avillage on the great road called Stilton, the country people fledinto the Isle of Ely, and every way, as if all was lost. Indeed ourdragoons treated the country very coarsely, and all our men in generalmade themselves rich. Between Stilton and Huntingdon we had a smallbustle with some of the associated troops of horse, but they were soonrouted, and fled to Huntingdon, where they gave such an account of usto their fellows that they did not think fit to stay for us, but lefttheir foot to defend themselves as well as they could.

  While this was doing in the van a party from Burleigh House, nearStamford, the seat of the Earl of Exeter, pursued four troops ofour horse, who, straggling towards Peterborough, and committing somedisorders there, were surprised before they could get into a postureof fighting; and encumbered, as I suppose, with their plunder, theywere entirely routed, lost most of their horses, and were forced tocome away on foot; but finding themselves in this condition, they gotin a body into the enclosures, and in that posture turning dragoons,they lined the hedges, and fired upon the enemy with their carabines.This way of fighting, though not very pleasant to troopers, put theenemy's horse to some stand, and encouraged our men to venture into avillage, where the enemy had secured forty of their horse; and boldlycharging the guard, they beat them off, and recovering those horses,the rest made their retreat good to Wansford Bridge; but we lost near100 horses, and about twelve of our men taken prisoners.

  The next day the king took Huntingdon; the foot which were left in thetown, as I observed by their horse, had posted themselves at the footof the bridge, and fortified the pass, with such things as the hasteand shortness of the time would allow; and in this posture they seemedresolute to defend themselves. I confess, had they in time planted agood force here, they might have put a full stop to our little army;for the river is large and deep, the country on the left marshy, fullof drains and ditches, and unfit for horse, and we must have eitherturned back, or took the right hand into Bedfordshire; but here notbeing above 400 foot, and they forsaken of their horse, the resistancethey made was to no other purpose than to give us occasion to knockthem on the head, and plunder the town.

  However, they defended the bridge, as I have said, and opposed ourpassage. I was this day in the van, and our forlorn having enteredHuntingdon without any great resistance till they came to the bridge,finding it barricaded, they sent me word; I caused the troops to halt,and rode up to the forlorn, to view the countenance of the enemy, andfound by the posture they had put themselves in, that they resolved tosell us the passage as dear as they could.

  I sent to the king for some dragoons, and gave him account of what Iobserved of the enemy, and that I judged them to be 1000 men; for Icould not particularly see their numbers. Accordingly the king ordered500 dragoons to attack the bridge, commanded by a major; the enemy had200 musketeers placed on the bridge, their barricade served them fora breastwork on the front, and the low walls on the bridge servedto secure their flanks. Two bodies of their foot were placed on theopposite banks of the river, and a reserve stood in the highway on therear. The number of their men could not have been better ordered, andthey wanted not courage answerable to the conduct of the party. Theywere commanded by one Bennet, a resolute officer, who stood in thefront of his men on the bridge with a pike in his hand.

  Before we began to fall on, the king ordered to view the river, to seeif it was nowhere passable, or any boat to be had; but the river beingnot fordable, and the boats all secured on the other side, the attackwas resolved on, and the dragoons fell on with extraordinary bravery.The foot defended themselves obstinately, and beat off our dragoonstwice, and though Bennet was killed upon the spot, and after him hislieutenant, yet their officers relieving them with fresh men, theywould certainly have beat us all off, had not a venturous fellow, oneof our dragoons, thrown himself into the river, swam over, and, in themidst of a shower of musket-bullets, cut the rope which tied a greatflat-bottom boat, and brought her over. With the help of this boat, Igot over 100 troopers first, and then their horses, and then 200 morewithout their horses; and with this party fell in with one of thesmall bodies of foot that were posted on that side, and having routedthem, and after them the reserve which stood on the road, I made upto the other party. They stood their ground, and having rallied therunaways of both the other parties, charged me with their pikes, andbrought me to a retreat; but by this time the king had sent over 300men more, and they coming up to me, the foot retreated. Those on thebridge finding how 'twas, and having no supplies sent them, as before,fainted, and fled; and the dragoons rushing forward, most of them werekilled; about 150 of the enemy were killed, of which all the officersat the bridge, the rest run away.

  The town suffered for it, for our men left them little of anythingthey could carry. Here we halted and raised contributions, took moneyof the country and of the open towns, to exempt them from plunder.Twice we faced the town of Cambridge, and several of our officersadvised his Majesty to storm it. But having no foot, and but 1200dragoons, wiser heads diverted him from it, and leaving Cambridgeon the left, we marched to Woburn, in Bedfordshire, and our partiesraised money all over the country quite into Hertfordshire, withinfive miles of St Alban's.

  The swiftness of our march, and uncertainty which way we intended,prevented all possible preparation to oppose us, and we met with noparty able to make head against us. From Woburn the king went throughBuckingham to Oxford; some of our men straggling in the villages forplunder, were often picked up by the enemy. But in all this long marchwe did not lose 200 men, got an incredible booty, and brought sixwaggons laden with money, besides 2000 horses and 3000 head of cattle,into Oxford. From Oxford his Majesty moves again into Gloucestershire,having left about 1500 of his horse at Oxford to scour the country,and raise contributions, which they did as far as Reading.

  Sir Thomas Fairfax was returned from taking Bridgewater, and was satdown before Bristol, in which Prince Rupert commanded with a stronggarrison, 2500 foot and 1000 horse. We had not force enough to attemptanything there. But the Scots, who lay still before Hereford,were afraid of us, having before parted with all their horse underLieutenant-General Leslie, and but ill stored with provisions; and ifwe came on their backs, were in a fair way to be starved, or made tobuy their provisions at the price of their blood.

  His Majesty was sensible of this, and had we had but ten regiments offoot, would certainly have fought th
e Scots. But we had no foot, or sofew as was not worth while to march them. However, the king marchedto Worcester, and the Scots, apprehending they should be blockedup, immediately raised the siege, pretending it was to go help theirbrethren in Scotland, and away they marched northwards.

  We picked up some of their stragglers, but they were so poor, had beenso ill paid, and so harassed at the siege, that they had neither moneynor clothes; and the poor soldiers fed upon apples and roots, and atethe very green corn as it grew in the fields, which reduced them toa very sorry condition of health, for they died like people infectedwith the plague.

  'Twas now debated whether we should yet march for Scotland, but twothings prevented--(1.) The plague was broke out there, and multitudesdied of it, which made the king backward, and the men more backward.(2.) The Marquis of Montrose, having routed a whole brigade ofLeslie's best horse, and carried all before him, wrote to his Majestythat he did not now want assistance, but was in hopes in a few daysto send a body of foot into England to his Majesty's assistance. Thisover-confidence of his was his ruin; for, on the contrary, had heearnestly pressed the king to have marched, and fallen in with hishorse, the king had done it, and been absolutely master of Scotlandin a fortnight's time; but Montrose was too confident, and defied themall, till at last they got their forces together, and Leslie with hishorse out of England, and worsted him in two or three encounters, andthen never left him till they drove him out of Scotland.

  While his Majesty stayed at Worcester, several messengers came to himfrom Cheshire for relief, being exceedingly straitened by the forcesof the Parliament; in order to which the king marched, but Shrewsburybeing in the enemy's hands, he was obliged to go round by Ludlow,where he was joined by some foot out of Wales. I took this opportunityto ask his Majesty's leave to go by Shrewsbury to my father's,and, taking only two servants, I left the army two days before theymarched.

  This was the most unsoldier-like action that ever I was guilty of, togo out of the army to pay a visit when a time of action was just athand; and, though I protest I had not the least intimation, no, notfrom my own thoughts, that the army would engage, at least before theycame to Chester, before which I intended to meet them, yet it lookedso ill, so like an excuse or a sham of cowardice, or disaffection tothe cause and to my master's interest, or something I know not what,that I could not bear to think of it, nor never had the heart to seethe king's face after it.

  From Ludlow the king marched to relieve Chester. Poyntz, who commandedthe Parliament's forces, follows the king, with design to join withthe forces before Chester, under Colonel Jones, before the king couldcome up. To that end Poyntz passes through Shrewsbury the day that theking marched from Ludlow; yet the king's forces got the start of him,and forced him to engage. Had the king engaged him but three hourssooner, and consequently farther off from Chester, he had ruined him,for Poyntz's men, not able to stand the shock of the king's horse,gave ground, and would in half-an-hour more have been beaten out ofthe field; but Colonel Jones, with a strong party from the camp, whichwas within two miles; comes up in the heat of the action, falls on inthe king's rear, and turned the scale of the day. The body was, afteran obstinate fight, defeated, and a great many gentlemen of qualitykilled and taken prisoners. The Earl of Lichfield was of the number ofthe former, and sixty-seven officers of the latter, with 1000 others.The king, with about 500 horse, got into Chester, and from thence intoWales, whither all that could get away made up to him as fast as theycould, but in a bad condition.

  This was the last stroke they struck; the rest of the war was nothingbut taking all his garrisons from him one by one, till they finishedthe war with the captivating his person, and then, for want of otherbusiness, fell to fighting with one another.

  I was quite disconsolate at the news of this last action, and themore because I was not there. My regiment wholly dispersed, mylieutenant-colonel, a gentleman of a good family, and a near relationto my mother, was prisoner, my major and three captains killed, andmost of the rest prisoners.

  The king, hopeless of any considerable party in Wales, Bristol beingsurrendered, sends for Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice, who cameto him. With them, and the Lord Digby, Sir Marmaduke Langdale, and agreat train of gentlemen, his Majesty marches to Newark again, leaves1000 horse with Sir William Vaughan to attempt the relief of Chester,in doing whereof he was routed the second time by Jones and his men,and entirely dispersed.

  The chief strength the king had in these parts was at Newark, and theParliament were very earnest with the Scots to march southward and tolay siege to Newark; and while the Parliament pressed them to it, andthey sat still and delayed it, several heats began, and some ill bloodbetween them, which afterwards broke out into open war. The Englishreproached the Scots with pretending to help them, and reallyhindering their affairs. The Scots returned that they came to fightfor them, and are left to be starved, and can neither get money norclothes. At last they came to this, the Scots will come to the siegeif the Parliament will send them money, but not before. However, aspeople sooner agree in doing ill than in doing well, they came toterms, and the Scots came with their whole army to the siege ofNewark.

  The king, foreseeing the siege, calls his friends about him, tellsthem he sees his circumstances are such that they can help him butlittle, nor he protect them, and advises them to separate. The LordDigby, with Sir Marmaduke Langdale, with a strong body of horse,attempt to get into Scotland to join with Montrose, who was still inthe Highlands, though reduced to a low ebb, but these gentlemen arefallen upon on every side and routed, and at last, being totallybroken and dispersed, they fly to the Earl of Derby's protection inthe Isle of Man.

  Prince Rupert, Prince Maurice, Colonel Gerard, and above 400gentlemen, all officers of horse, lay their commissions down, andseizing upon Wootton House for a retreat, make proposals to theParliament to leave the kingdom, upon their parole not to return againin arms against the Parliament, which was accepted, though afterwardsthe prince declined it. I sent my man post to the prince to beincluded in this treaty, and for leave for all that would accept oflike conditions, but they had given in the list of their names, andcould not alter it.

  This was a sad time. The poor remains of the king's fortunes wenteverywhere to wreck. Every garrison of the enemy was full of theCavalier prisoners, and every garrison the king had was beset withenemies, either blocked up or besieged. Goring and the Lord Hoptonwere the only remainders of the king's forces which kept in a body,and Fairfax was pushing them with all imaginable vigour with his wholearmy about Exeter and other parts of Devonshire and Cornwall.

  In this condition the king left Newark in the night, and got toOxford. The king had in Oxford 8000 men, and the towns of Banbury,Farringdon, Donnington Castle, and such places as might have beenbrought together in twenty-four hours, 15,000 or 20,000 men, withwhich, if he had then resolved to have quitted the place,and collected the forces in Worcester, Hereford, Lichfield,Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and all the small castles and garrisons he hadthereabouts, he might have had near 40,000 men, might have beatenthe Scots from Newark, Colonel Jones from Chester, and all, beforeFairfax, who was in the west, could be able to come to their relief.And this his Majesty's friends in North Wales had concerted; and, inorder to it, Sir Jacob Ashby gathered what forces he could, in ourparts, and attempted to join the king at Oxford, and to have proposedit to him; but Sir Jacob was entirely routed at Stow-on-the-Wold, andtaken prisoner, and of 3000 men not above 600 came to Oxford.

  All the king's garrisons dropped one by one; Hereford, which had stoodout against the whole army of the Scots, was surprised by six men anda lieutenant dressed up for country labourers, and a constable pressedto work, who cut the guards in pieces, and let in a party of theenemy. Chester was reduced by famine, all the attempts the king madeto relieve it being frustrated.

  Sir Thomas Fairfax routed the Lord Hopton at Torrington, and drove himto such extremities, that he was forced up into the farthest corner ofCornwall. The Lord Hopton had a gallant body of horse with him of n
inebrigades, but no foot; Fairfax, a great army.

  Heartless, and tired out with continual ill news, and ill success,I had frequent meetings with some gentlemen who had escaped fromthe rout of Sir William Vaughan, and we agreed upon a meeting atWorcester, of all the friends we could get, to see if we could raisea body fit to do any service; or, if not, to consider what was to bedone. At this meeting we had almost as many opinions as people; ourstrength appeared too weak to make any attempt, the game was too fargone in our parts to be retrieved; all we could make up did not amountto above 800 horse.

  'Twas unanimously agreed not to go into the Parliament as long as ourroyal master did not give up the cause; but in all places, and by allpossible methods, to do him all the service we could. Some proposedone thing, some another; at last we proposed getting vessels to carryus to the Isle of Man to the Earl of Derby, as Sir Marmaduke Langdale,Lord Digby, and others had done. I did not foresee any serviceit would be to the king's affairs, but I started a proposal that,marching to Pembroke in a body, we should there seize upon all thevessels we could, and embarking ourselves, horses, and what footwe could get, cross the Severn Sea, and land in Cornwall to theassistance of Prince Charles, who was in the army of the Lord Hopton,and where only there seemed to be any possibility of a chance for theremaining part of our cause.

  This proposal was not without its difficulties, as how to get to theseaside, and, when there, what assurance of shipping. The enemy, underMajor-General Langhorn, had overrun Wales, and 'twould be next toimpossible to effect it.

  We could never carry our proposal with the whole assembly; but,however, about 200 of us resolved to attempt it, and [the] meetingbeing broken up without coming to any conclusion, we had a privatemeeting among ourselves to effect it.

  We despatched private messengers to Swansea and Pembroke, and otherplaces; but they all discouraged us from the attempt that way, andadvised us to go higher towards North Wales, where the king's interesthad more friends, and the Parliament no forces. Upon this we met, andresolved, and having sent several messengers that way, one of my menprovided us two small vessels in a little creek near Harlech Castle,in Merionethshire. We marched away with what expedition we could, andembarked in the two vessels accordingly. It was the worst voyage surethat ever man went; for first we had no manner of accommodation for somany people, hay for our horses we got none, or very little, but goodstore of oats, which served us for our own bread as well as provenderfor the horses.

  In this condition we put off to sea, and had a fair wind all the firstnight, but early in the morning a sudden storm drove us within two orthree leagues of Ireland. In this pickle, sea-sick, our horses rollingabout upon one another, and ourselves stifled for want of room, nocabins nor beds, very cold weather, and very indifferent diet, wewished ourselves ashore again a thousand times; and yet we were notwilling to go ashore in Ireland if we could help it; for the rebelshaving possession of every place, that was just having our throats cutat once. Having rolled about at the mercy of the winds all day, thestorm ceasing in the evening, we had fair weather again, but windenough, which being large, in two days and a night we came upon thecoast of Cornwall, and, to our no small comfort, landed the next dayat St Ives, in the county of Cornwall.

  We rested ourselves here, and sent an express to the Lord Hopton, whowas then in Devonshire, of our arrival, and desired him to assign usquarters, and send us his farther orders. His lordship expressed avery great satisfaction at our arrival, and left it to our own conductto join him as we saw convenient.

  We were marching to join him, when news came that Fairfax had givenhim an entire defeat at Torrington. This was but the old story overagain. We had been used to ill news a great while, and 'twas the lesssurprise to us.

  Upon this news we halted at Bodmin, till we should hear farther; andit was not long before we saw a confirmation of the news before oureyes, for the Lord Hopton, with the remainder of his horse, which hehad brought off at Torrington in a very shattered condition, retreatedto Launceston, the first town in Cornwall, and hearing that Fairfaxpursued him, came on to Bodmin. Hither he summoned all the troopswhich he had left, which, when he had got together, were a finebody indeed of 5000 horse, but few foot but what were at Pendennis,Barnstaple, and other garrisons. These were commanded by the LordHopton. The Lord Goring had taken shipping for France to get relief afew days before.

  Here a grand council of war was called, and several things wereproposed, but as it always is in distress, people are most irresolute,so 'twas here. Some were for breaking through by force, our numberbeing superior to the enemy's horse. To fight them with their footwould be desperation and ridiculous; and to retreat would but beto coop up themselves in a narrow place, where at last they must beforced to fight upon disadvantage, or yield at mercy. Others opposedthis as a desperate action, and without probability of success, andall were of different opinions. I confess, when I saw how thingswere, I saw 'twas a lost game, and I was for the opinion of breakingthrough, and doing it now, while the country was open and large, andnot being forced to it when it must be with more disadvantage. Butnothing was resolved on, and so we retreated before the enemy. Somesmall skirmishes there happened near Bodmin, but none that were veryconsiderable.

  'Twas the 1st of March when we quitted Bodmin, and quartered at largeat Columb, St Dennis, and Truro, and the enemy took his quarters atBodmin, posting his horse at the passes from Padstow on the north, toWadebridge, Lostwithiel, and Fowey, spreading so from sea to sea,that now breaking through was impossible. There was no more room forcounsel; for unless we had ships to carry us off, we had nothing to dobut when we were fallen upon, to defend ourselves, and sell victory asdear as we could to the enemies.

  The Prince of Wales seeing the distress we were in, and loth tofall into the enemy's hands, ships himself on board some vessels atFalmouth, with about 400 lords and gentlemen. And as I had no commandhere to oblige my attendance, I was once going to make one, but mycomrades, whom I had been the principal occasion of bringing hither,began to take it ill, that I would leave them, and so I resolved wewould take our fate together.

  While thus we had nothing before us but a soldier's death, a fairfield, and a strong enemy, and people began to look one upon another,the soldiers asked how their officers looked, and the officers askedhow their soldiers looked, and every day we expected to be our last,when unexpectedly the enemy's general sent a trumpet to Truro to myLord Hopton, with a very handsome gentlemanlike offer:--

  That since the general could not be ignorant of his present condition,and that the place he was in could not afford him subsistence ordefence; and especially considering that the state of our affairs weresuch, that if we should escape from thence we could not remove toour advantage, he had thought good to let us know, that if we woulddeliver up our horses and arms, he would, for avoiding the effusion ofChristian blood, or the putting any unsoldierly extremities upon us,allow such honourable and safe conditions, as were rather better thanour present circumstances could demand, and such as should dischargehim to all the world, as a gentleman, as a soldier, and as aChristian.

  After this followed the conditions he would give us, which were asfollows, viz.:--That all the soldiery, as well English as foreigners,should have liberty to go beyond the seas, or to their own dwellings,as they pleased; and to such as shall choose to live at home,protection for their liberty, and from all violence and plunderingof soldiers, and to give them bag and baggage, and all their goods,except horses and arms.

  That for officers in commissions, and gentlemen of quality, he wouldallow them horses for themselves and one servant, or more, suitableto their quality, and such arms as are suitable to gentlemen of suchquality travelling in times of peace; and such officers as would gobeyond sea, should take with them their full arms and number of horsesas are allowed in the army to such officers.

  That all the troopers shall receive on the delivery of theirhorses, 20s. a man to carry them home; and the general's pass andrecommendation to any gentleman who desires to go to t
he Parliament tosettle the composition for their estates.

  Lastly, a very honourable mention of the general, and offer of theirmediation to the Parliament, to treat him as a man of honour, and onewho has been tender of the country, and behaved himself with all themoderation and candour that could be expected from an enemy.

  Upon the unexpected receipt of this message, a council of war wascalled, and the letter read; no man offered to speak a word; thegeneral moved it, but every one was loth to begin.

  At last an old colonel starts up, and asked the general what hethought might occasion the writing this letter? The general told him,he could not tell; but he could tell, he was sure, of one thing, thathe knew what was not the occasion of it, viz., that is, not any wantof force in their army to oblige us to other terms. Then a doubt wasstarted, whether the king and Parliament were not in any treaty, whichthis agreement might be prejudicial to.

  This occasioned a letter to my Lord Fairfax, wherein our generalreturning the civilities, and neither accepting nor refusing hisproposal, put it upon his honour, whether there was not some agreementor concession between his Majesty and the Parliament, in order to ageneral peace, which this treaty might be prejudicial to, or therebybe prejudicial to us.

  The Lord Fairfax ingenuously declared, he had heard the king had madesome concessions, and he heartily wished he would make such as wouldsettle the kingdom in peace, that Englishmen might not wound anddestroy one another; but that he declared he knew of no treatycommenced, nor anything passed which could give us the least shadowof hope for any advantage in not accepting his conditions; at lasttelling us, that though he did not insult over our circumstances, yetif we thought fit, upon any such supposition, to refuse his offers, hewas not to seek in his measures.

  And it appeared so, for he immediately advanced his forlorns, anddispossessed us of two advanced quarters, and thereby straitened usyet more.

  We had now nothing to say, but treat, and our general was so sensibleof our condition, that he returned the trumpet with a safe-conduct forcommissioners at twelve o'clock that night; upon which a cessation ofarms was agreed on, we quitting Truro to the Lord Fairfax, and he leftSt Allen to us to keep our headquarters.

  The conditions were soon agreed on; we disbanded nine full brigades ofhorse, and all the conditions were observed with the most honour andcare by the enemy that ever I saw in my life.

  Nor can I omit to make very honourable mention of this noblegentleman, though I did not like his cause; but I never saw a man ofa more pleasant, calm, courteous, downright, honest behaviour in mylife; and for his courage and personal bravery in the field, that wehad felt enough of. No man in the world had more fire and fury in himwhile in action, or more temper and softness out of it. In short, andI cannot do him greater honour, he exceedingly came near the characterof my foreign hero, Gustavus Adolphus, and in my account is, of allthe soldiers in Europe, the fittest to be reckoned in the second placeof honour to him.

  I had particular occasion to see much of his temper in all thisaction, being one of the hostages given by our general for theperformance of the conditions, in which circumstance the general didme several times the honour to send to me to dine with him; and wasexceedingly pleased to discourse with me about the passages of thewars in Germany, which I had served in, he having been at the sametime in the Low Countries in the service of Prince Maurice; but Iobserved if at any time my civilities extended to commendations of hisown actions, and especially to comparing him to Gustavus Adolphus, hewould blush like a woman, and be uneasy, declining the discourse, andin this he was still more like him.

  Let no man scruple my honourable mention of this noble enemy, sinceno man can suspect me of favouring the cause he embarked in, whichI served as heartily against as any man in the army; but I cannotconceal extraordinary merit for its being placed in an enemy.

  This was the end of our making war, for now we were all under parolenever to bear arms against the Parliament; and though some of us didnot keep our word, yet I think a soldier's parole ought to be the mostsacred in such case, that a soldier may be the easier trusted at alltimes upon his word. For my part, I went home fully contented, sinceI could do my royal master no better service, that I had come off noworse.

  The enemy going now on in a full current of success, and the kingreduced to the last extremity, and Fairfax, by long marches, beingcome back within five miles of Oxford, his Majesty, loth to be coopedup in a town which could on no account hold long out, quits the townin a disguise, leaving Sir Thomas Clemham governor, and being onlyattended with Mr Ashburnham and one more, rides away to Newark, andthere fatally committed himself to the honour and fidelity of theScots under General Leven.

  There had been some little bickering between the Parliament and theScots commissioners concerning the propositions which the Scots werefor a treaty with the king upon, and the Parliament refused it. TheParliament, upon all proposals of peace, had formerly invited the kingto come and throw himself upon the honour, fidelity, and affection ofhis Parliament. And now the king from Oxford offering to come upto London on the protection of the Parliament for the safety of hisperson, they refused him, and the Scots differed from them in it, andwere for a personal treaty.

  This, in our opinion, was the reason which prompted the king to throwhimself upon the fidelity of the Scots, who really by their infidelityhad been the ruin of all his affairs, and now, by their perfidiousbreach of honour and faith with him, will be virtually and mediatelythe ruin of his person.

  The Scots were, as all the nation besides them was, surprised at theking's coming among them; the Parliament began very high with them,and send an order to General Leven to send the king to Warwick Castle;but he was not so hasty to part with so rich a prize. As soon as theking came to the general, he signs an order to Colonel Bellasis, thegovernor of Newark, to surrender it, and immediately the Scots decamphomewards, carrying the king in the camp with them, and marching on, ahouse was ordered to be provided for the king at Newcastle.

  And now the Parliament saw their error, in refusing his Majesty apersonal treaty, which, if they had accepted (their army was not yettaught the way of huffing their masters), the kingdom might have beensettled in peace. Upon this the Parliament send to General Leven tohave his Majesty not be sent, which was their first language, but besuffered to come to London to treat with his Parliament; before itwas, "Let the king be sent to Warwick Castle"; now 'tis, "To let hisMajesty come to London to treat with his people."

  But neither one or the other would do with the Scots; but we who knewthe Scots best knew that there was one thing would do with them, ifthe other would not, and that was money; and therefore our heartsached for the king.

  The Scots, as I said, had retreated to Newcastle with the king, andthere they quartered their whole army at large upon the country;the Parliament voted they had no farther occasion for the Scots, anddesired them to go home about their business. I do not say it wasin these words, but in whatsoever good words their messages mightbe expressed, this and nothing less was the English of it. The Scotsreply, by setting forth their losses, damages, and dues, the substanceof which was, "Pay us our money and we will be gone, or else we won'tstir." The Parliament call for an account of their demands, which theScots give in, amounting to a million; but, according to their custom,and especially finding that the army under Fairfax inclined graduallythat way, fall down to L500,000, and at last to L400,000; but all thewhile this is transacting a separate treaty is carried on at Londonwith the commissioners of Scotland, and afterwards at Edinburgh, bywhich it is given them to understand that, whereas upon payment of themoney, the Scots army is to march out of England, and to give up allthe towns and garrisons which they hold in this kingdom, so they areto take it for granted that 'tis the meaning of the treaty that theyshall leave the king in the hands of the English Parliament.

  To make this go down the better, the Scotch Parliament, upon hisMajesty's desire to go with their army into Scotland, send him foranswer, that it cannot be for the safety of
his Majesty or of theState to come into Scotland, not having taken the Covenant, and thiswas carried in their Parliament but by two voices.

  The Scots having refused his coming into Scotland, as was concertedbetween the two Houses, and their army being to march out ofEngland, the delivering up the king became a consequence of thething--unavoidable, and of necessity.

  His Majesty, thus deserted of those into whose hands he had thrownhimself, took his leave of the Scots general at Newcastle, telling himonly, in few words, this sad truth, that he was bought and sold. TheParliament commissioners received him at Newcastle from the Scots, andbrought him to Holmby House, in Northamptonshire; from whence, uponthe quarrels and feuds of parties, he was fetched by a party of horse,commanded by one Cornet Joyce, from the army, upon their mutinousrendezvous at Triplow Heath; and, after this, suffering many violencesand varieties of circumstances among the army, was carried to HamptonCourt, from whence his Majesty very readily made his escape; but nothaving notice enough to provide effectual means for his more effectualdeliverance, was obliged to deliver himself to Colonel Hammond in theIsle of Wight. Here, after some very indifferent usage, the Parliamentpursued a farther treaty with him, and all points were agreed buttwo: the entire abolishing Episcopacy, which the king declared to beagainst his conscience and his coronation oath; and the sale of theChurch lands, which he declared, being most of them gifts to God andthe Church, by persons deceased, his Majesty thought could not bealienated without the highest sacrilege, and if taken from the usesto which they were appointed by the wills of the donors, ought to berestored back to the heirs and families of the persons who bequeathedthem.

  And these two articles so stuck with his Majesty, that he venturedhis fortune, and royal family, and his own life for them. However, atlast, the king condescended so far in these, that the Parliament votedhis Majesty's concessions to be sufficient to settle and establish thepeace of the nation.

  This vote discovered the bottom of all the counsels which thenprevailed; for the army, who knew if peace were once settled, theyshould be undone, took the alarm at this, and clubbing together incommittees and councils, at last brought themselves to a degreeof hardness above all that ever this nation saw; for calling intoquestion the proceedings of their masters who employed them, theyimmediately fall to work upon the Parliament, remove Colonel Hammond,who had the charge of the king, and used him honourably, place anew guard upon him, dismiss the commissioners, and put a stop to thetreaty; and, following their blow, march to London, place regiments offoot at the Parliament-house door, and, as the members came up,seize upon all those whom they had down in a list as promoters of thesettlement and treaty, and would not suffer them to sit; but the restwho, being of their own stamp, are permitted to go on, carry on thedesigns of the army, revive their votes of non-addresses to theking, and then, upon the army's petition to bring all delinquents tojustice, the mask was thrown off, the word all is declared to bemeant the king, as well as every man else they pleased. 'Tis too sada story, and too much a matter of grief to me, and to all good men, torenew the blackness of those days, when law and justice was under thefeet of power; the army ruled the Parliament, the private officerstheir generals, the common soldiers their officers, and confusion wasin every part of the government. In this hurry they sacrificed theirking, and shed the blood of the English nobility without mercy.

  The history of the times will supply the particulars which I omit,being willing to confine myself to my own accounts and observations.I was now no more an actor, but a melancholy observator of themisfortunes of the times. I had given my parole not to take up armsagainst the Parliament, and I saw nothing to invite me to engage ontheir side. I saw a world of confusion in all their counsels, and Ialways expected that in a chain of distractions, as it generally fallsout, the last link would be destruction; and though I pretended to noprophecy, yet the progress of affairs have brought it to pass, and Ihave seen Providence, who suffered, for the correction of this nation,the sword to govern and devour us, has at last brought destruction bythe sword upon the head of most of the party who first drew it.

  * * * * *

  If together with the brief account of what concern I had in theactive part of the war, I leave behind me some of my own remarksand observations, it may be pertinent enough to my design, and notunuseful to posterity.

  1. I observed by the sequel of things that it may be some excuse tothe first Parliament, who began this war, to say that they manifestedtheir designs were not aimed at the monarchy, nor their quarrel atthe person of the king; because, when they had in their power, thoughagainst his will, they would have restored both his person and dignityas a king, only loading it with such clogs of the people's power asthey at first pretended to, viz., the militia, and power of namingthe great officers at court, and the like; which powers, it was neverdenied, had been stretched too far in the beginning of this king'sreign, and several things done illegally, which his Majesty had beensensible of, and was willing to rectify; but they having obtained thepower by victory, resolved so to secure themselves, as that, wheneverthey laid down their arms, the king should not be able to do the likeagain. And thus far they were not to be so much blamed, and we didnot on our own part blame them, when they had obtained the power, forparting with it on good terms.

  But when I have thus far advocated for the enemies, I must be veryfree to state the crimes of this bloody war by the events of it. 'Tismanifest there were among them from the beginning a party who aimedat the very root of the government, and at the very thing which theybrought to pass, viz., the deposing and murdering of their sovereign;and, as the devil is always master where mischief is the work, thisparty prevailed, turned the other out of doors, and overturned allthat little honesty that might be in the first beginning of thisunhappy strife.

  The consequence of this was, the Presbyterians saw their error whenit was too late, and then would gladly have joined the royal party tohave suppressed this new leaven which had infected the lump; and thisis very remarkable, that most of the first champions of this war whobore the brunt of it, when the king was powerful and prosperous, andwhen there was nothing to be got by it but blows, first or last, wereso ill used by this independent, powerful party, who tripped upthe heels of all their honesty, that they were either forced by illtreatment to take up arms on our side, or suppressed and reduced bythem. In this the justice of Providence seemed very conspicuous, thatthese having pushed all things by violence against the king, and byarms and force brought him to their will, were at once both robbedof the end, their Church government, and punished for drawing theirswords against their masters, by their own servants drawing the swordagainst them; and God, in His due time, punished the others too. Andwhat was yet farther strange, the punishment of this crime of makingwar against their king, singled out those very men, both in thearmy and in the Parliament, who were the greatest champions of thePresbyterian cause in the council and in the field. Some minutes, too,of circumstances I cannot forbear observing, though they are not verymaterial, as to the fatality and revolutions of days and times. ARoman Catholic gentleman of Lancashire, a very religious man in hisway, who had kept a calculate of times, and had observed mightily thefatality of times, places, and actions, being at my father's house,was discoursing once upon the just judgment of God in dating Hisprovidences, so as to signify to us His displeasure at particularcircumstances; and, among an infinite number of collections he hadmade, these were some which I took particular notice of, and fromwhence I began to observe the like:--

  1. That King Edward VI. died the very same day of the same monthin which he caused the altar to be taken down, and the image of theBlessed Virgin in the Cathedral of St Paul's.

  2. That Cranmer was burnt at Oxford the same day and month that hegave King Henry VIII. advice to divorce his Queen Catherine.

  3. That Queen Elizabeth died the same day and month that she resolved,in her Privy Council, to behead the Queen of Scots.

  4. That King James died the same
day that he published his bookagainst Bellarmine.

  5. That King Charles's long Parliament, which ruined him, began thevery same day and month which that Parliament began, that at therequest of his predecessor robbed the Roman Church of all herrevenues, and suppressed abbeys and monasteries.

  How just his calculations were, or how true the matter of fact,I cannot tell, but it put me upon the same in several actions andsuccesses of this war. And I found a great many circumstances, as totime or action, which befell both his Majesty and his parties first;

  Then others which befell the Parliament and Presbyterian faction,which raised the war;

  Then the Independent tyranny which succeeded and supplanted the firstparty;

  Then the Scots who acted on both sides;

  Lastly, the restoration and re-establishment of the loyalty andreligion of our ancestors.

  1. For King Charles I.; 'tis observable, that the charge against theEarl of Strafford, a thing which his Majesty blamed himself for allthe days of his life, and at the moment of his last suffering, wasfirst read in the Lords' House on the 30th of January, the same day ofthe month six years that the king himself was brought to the block.

  2. That the king was carried away prisoner from Newark, by the Scots,May 10, the same day six years that, against his conscience andpromise, he passed the bill of attainder against the loyal, noble Earlof Strafford.

  3. The same day seven years that the king entered the House of Commonsfor the five members, which all his friends blamed him for, the sameday the Rump voted bringing his Majesty to trial, after they had setby the Lords for not agreeing to it, which was the 3rd of January1648.

  4. The 12th of May 1646, being the surrender of Newark, the Parliamentheld a day of thanksgiving and rejoicing, for the reduction of theking and his party, and finishing the war, which was the same day fiveyears that the Earl of Strafford was beheaded.

  5. The battle at Naseby, which ruined the king's affairs, and wherehis secretary and his office was taken, was the 14th of June, the sameday and month the first commission was given out by his Majesty toraise forces.

  6. The queen voted a traitor by the Parliament the 3rd of May, thesame day and month she carried the jewels into France.

  7. The same day the king defeated Essex in the west, his son, KingCharles II., was defeated at Worcester.

  8. Archbishop Laud's house at Lambeth assaulted by the mob, the sameday of the same month that he advised the king to make war upon theScots.

  9. Impeached the 15th of December 1640, the same day twelvemonth thathe ordered the Common Prayer-book of Scotland to be printed, in orderto be imposed upon the Scots, from which all our troubles began.

  But many more, and more strange, are the critical junctures of affairsin the case of the enemy, or at least more observed by me:--

  1. Sir John Hotham, who repulsed his Majesty and refused himadmittance into Hull before the war, was seized at Hull by the sameParliament for whom he had done it, the same 10th day of August twoyears that he drew the first blood in that war.

  2. Hampden of Buckinghamshire killed the same day one year that themob petition from Bucks was presented to the king about him, as one ofthe five members.

  3. Young Captain Hotham executed the 1st of January, the same day thathe assisted Sir Thomas Fairfax in the first skirmish with the king'sforces at Bramham Moor.

  4. The same day and month, being the 6th of August 1641, that theParliament voted to raise an army against the king, the same day andmonth, _anno_ 1648, the Parliament were assaulted and turned out ofdoors by that very army, and none left to sit but who the soldierspleased, which were therefore called the Rump.

  5. The Earl of Holland deserted the king, who had made him general ofthe horse, and went over to the Parliament, and the 9th of March1641, carried the Commons' reproaching declaration to the king; andafterwards taking up arms for the king against the Parliament, wasbeheaded by them the 9th of March 1648, just seven years after.

  6. The Earl of Holland was sent by the king to come to his assistanceand refused, the 11th of July 1641, and that very day seven yearsafter was taken by the Parliament at St Neots.

  7. Colonel Massey defended Gloucester against the king, and beathim off the 5th of September 1643; was taken after by Cromwell's menfighting for the king, on the 5th of September 1651, two or three daysafter the fight at Worcester.

  8. Richard Cromwell resigning, because he could not help it, theParliament voted a free Commonwealth, without a single person or Houseof Lords. This was the 25th of May 1658; the 25th of May 1660, theking landed at Dover, and restored the government of a single personand House of Lords.

  9. Lambert was proclaimed a traitor by the Parliament April the 20th,being the same day he proposed to Oliver Cromwell to take upon him thetitle of king.

  10. Monk being taken prisoner at Nantwich by Sir Thomas Fairfax,revolted to the Parliament the same day nineteen years he declared forthe king, and thereby restored the royal authority.

  11. The Parliament voted to approve of Sir John Hotham's repulsingthe king at Hull, the 28th of April 1642; the 28th of April 1660, theParliament first debated in the House the restoring the king to thecrown.

  12. The agitators of the army formed themselves into a cabal, and heldtheir first meeting to seize on the king's person, and take him intotheir custody from Holmby, the 28th of April 1647; the same day,1660, the Parliament voted the agitators to be taken into custody, andcommitted as many of them as could be found.

  13. The Parliament voted the queen a traitor for assisting herhusband, the king, May the 3rd, 1643; her son, King Charles II., waspresented with the votes of Parliament to restore him, and the presentof L50,000, the 3rd of May 1660.

  14. The same day the Parliament passed the Act for recognition ofOliver Cromwell, October 13th, 1654, Lambert broke up the Parliamentand set up the army, 1659, October the 13th.

  Some other observations I have made, which, as not so pertinent, Iforbear to publish, among which I have noted the fatality of some daysto parties, as--

  The 2nd of September: The fight at Dunbar; the fight at Worcester; theoath against a single person passed; Oliver's first Parliament called.For the enemy.

  The 2nd of September: Essex defeated in Cornwall; Oliver died; cityworks demolished. For the king.

  The 29th of May: Prince Charles born; Leicester taken by storm; KingCharles II. restored. Ditto.

  Fatality of circumstances in this unhappy war, as--

  1. The English Parliament call in the Scots, to invade their king, andare invaded themselves by the same Scots, in defence of the king whosecase, and the design of the Parliament, the Scots had mistaken.

  2. The Scots, who unjustly assisted the Parliament to conquer theirlawful sovereign, contrary to their oath of allegiance, and withoutany pretence on the king's part, are afterwards absolutely conqueredand subdued by the same Parliament they assisted.

  3. The Parliament, who raised an army to depose their king, deposed bythe very army they had raised.

  4. The army broke three Parliaments, and are at last broke by a freeParliament; and all they had done by the military power, undone atonce by the civil.

  5. Abundance of the chief men, who by their fiery spirits involved thenation in a civil war, and took up arms against their prince, first orlast met with ruin or disgrace from their own party.

  (1.) Sir John Hotham and his son, who struck the first stroke, bothbeheaded or hanged by the Parliament.

  (2.) Major-General Massey three times taken prisoner by them, and oncewounded at Worcester.

  (3.) Major-General Langhorn, (4.) Colonel Poyer, and (5.) ColonelPowell, changed sides, and at last taken, could obtain no other favourthan to draw lots for their lives; Colonel Poyer drew the dead lot,and was shot to death.

  (6.) Earl of Holland: who, when the House voted who should bereprieved, Lord Goring, who had been their worst enemy, or the Earl ofHolland, who excepting one offence, had been their constant servant,voted Goring to be spared, and the Earl to die.
/>
  (7.) The Earl of Essex, their first general;

  (8.) Sir William Waller;

  (9.) Lieutenant-General Ludlow;

  (10.) The Earl of Manchester;

  --all disgusted and voted out of the army, though they had stood thefirst shock of the war, to make way for the new model of the army, andintroduce a party.

  * * * * *

  In all these confusions I have observed two great errors, one of theking, and one of his friends.

  Of the king, that when he was in their custody, and at their mercy,he did not comply with their propositions of peace, before their army,for want of employment, fell into heats and mutinies; that he did notat first grant the Scots their own conditions, which, if he had done,he had gone into Scotland; and then, if the English would have foughtthe Scots for him, he had a reserve of his loyal friends, who wouldhave had room to have fallen in with the Scots to his assistance,who were after dispersed and destroyed in small parties attempting toserve him.

  While his Majesty remained at Newcastle, the queen wrote to him,persuading him to make peace upon any terms; and in politics herMajesty's advice was certainly the best. For, however low he wasbrought by a peace, it must have been better than the condition he wasthen in.

  The error I mention of the king's friends was this, that after theysaw all was lost, they could not be content to sit still, and reservethemselves for better fortunes, and wait the happy time when thedivisions of the enemy would bring them to certain ruin; but musthasten their own miseries by frequent fruitless risings, in the faceof a victorious enemy, in small parties; and I always found theseeffects from it:--

  1. The enemy, who were always together by the ears, when they were letalone, were united and reconciled when we gave them any interruption;as particularly, in the case of the first assault the army made uponthem, when Colonel Pride, with his regiment, garbled the House, asthey called it. At that time a fair opportunity offered; but it wasomitted till it was too late. That insult upon the House had beenattempted the year before, but was hindered by the little insurrectionof the royal party, and the sooner they had fallen out, the better.

  2. These risings being desperate, with vast disadvantages, and alwayssuppressed, ruined all our friends; the remnants of the Cavaliers werelessened, the stoutest and most daring were cut off, and the king'sinterest exceedingly weakened, there not being less than 30,000 ofhis best friends cut off in the several attempts made at Maidstone,Colchester, Lancashire, Pembroke, Pontefract, Kingston, Preston,Warrington, Worcester, and other places. Had these men all reservedtheir fortunes to a conjunction with the Scots, at either of theinvasions they made into this kingdom, and acted with the conduct andcourage they were known masters of, perhaps neither of those Scotsarmies had been defeated.

  But the impatience of our friends ruined all; for my part, I had asgood a mind to put my hand to the ruin of the enemy as any of them,but I never saw any tolerable appearance of a force able to match theenemy, and I had no mind to be beaten and then hanged. Had we let themalone, they would have fallen into so many parties and factions, andso effectually have torn one another to pieces, that whichsoever partyhad come to us, we should, with them, have been too hard for all therest.

  This was plain by the course of things afterwards; when theIndependent army had ruffled the Presbyterian Parliament, the soldieryof that party made no scruple to join us, and would have restored theking with all their hearts, and many of them did join us at last.

  And the consequence, though late, ended so; for they fell out somany times, army and Parliament, Parliament and army, and alternatelypulled one another down so often till at last the Presbyterians whobegan the war, ended it, and, to be rid of their enemies, rather thanfor any love to the monarchy, restored King Charles the Second, andbrought him in on the very day that they themselves had formerlyresolved the ruin of his father's government, being the 29th of May,the same day twenty years that the private cabal in London concludedtheir secret league with the Scots, to embroil his father King Charlesthe First.

  [Footnote 1: General Ludlow, in his Memoirs, p. 52, says their menreturned from Warwick to London, not like men who had obtained avictory, but like men that had been beaten.]

  NOTES.

  p. 1. The preface to the first edition, which appeared in 1720, waswritten by Defoe as "Editor" of the manuscript. The second editionappeared between 1740 and 1750, after the death of Defoe. (He wasprobably born in 1671 and he died in 1731.) In the preface to thatedition it was argued that the Cavalier was certainly a real person.

  p. 2, l. 35. "Nicely" is here used in the stricter and more uncommonsense of "minutely." This use of words in a slightly different sensefrom their common modern significance will be noticed frequently;cf. p. 8, l. 17 "passionately," p. 18, l. 40 "refined," p. 31, l. 18"particular."

  p. 3, l. 3. Charles XII the famous soldier king of Sweden died in 1718.

  p. 3, l. 31. Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, was one of the staunchestsupporters of Charles I, and Chancellor under Charles II. His _Historyof the Rebellion_ is naturally written from the Royalist standpoint.This statement concerning "the editors" can only be intended by Defoeto give colour of truth to his story of the manuscript.

  p. 10, l. 17. England had been nominally at war with Spain since thebeginning of the reign of Charles I. Peace was actually made in 1630.

  p. 12, l. 3. A pistole was a gold coin used chiefly in France andSpain. Its value varied but it was generally worth about fifteen orsixteen shillings.

  p. 14, l. 5. Cardinal Richelieu, one of the greatest statesmen ofthe seventeenth century, was practically supreme in France during thereign of Louis XIII.

  p. 14, l. 16. The cause of the war with Savoy is told at length onpage 23. Savoy being the frontier province between France and Italy itwas important that France should maintain her influence there.

  p. 14, l. 18. Pinerolo was a frontier fortress.

  p. 14, l. 36. The queen-mother was Mary de Medicis who had been regentduring the minority of Louis XIII.

  p. 15, l. 3. The Protestants or Huguenots of Southern France had beentolerated since 1598 but Richelieu deprived them of many of theirprivileges.

  p. 15, l. 21. In 1625 when England was in alliance with France Englishships had been joined with the French fleet to reduce la Rochelle, thegreat stronghold of Protestantism in Southern France.

  p. 16, l. 7. The Louvre, now famous as a picture gallery and museum,was formerly one of the palaces of the French Kings.

  p. 17, l. 16. The Bastille was the famous prison destroyed in 1789 atthe outbreak of the French Revolution.

  p. 18, l. 13. In the seventeenth century Italy was still divided intoseveral states each with its own prince.

  p. 18, l. 22. Susa was another Savoyard fortress.

  p. 19, l. 17. A halberd was a weapon consisting of a long wooden shaftsurmounted by an axe-like head.

  p. 21, l. 30. The Cantons were the political divisions of Switzerland.

  p. 23, l. 7. Casale, a strong town on the Po.

  p. 25, l. 14. A dragoon was a cavalry soldier armed with an infantryfirearm and trained to fight on foot as well as on horseback.

  p. 27, l. 25. Saluzzo a town S.E. of Pinerolo.

  p. 29, l. 12. This truce prepared for the definite "Peace ofCherasco," April 1631, which confirmed the Duchy of Mantua to the Dukeof Nevers but left only Pinerolo in the hands of the French.

  p. 31, l. 12. This refers to the Treaty of Baerwalde, 1631, by whichGustavus Adolphus promised to consider the interests of the French(who were the natural enemies of the Empire).

  p. 31, l. 16. In 1628 the Duke of Pomerania had been obliged to puthis coast line under the care of the imperial troops. In attacking ittherefore in 1639 Gustavus Adolphus was aiming a blow at the Emperorand obtaining a good basis for further conquests.

  p. 31, l. 25. _Gazette_ is the old name for _newspaper_.

  p. 33, l. 12. Bavaria was the chief Catholic State not under thedirect government of the Emperor. Maxim
ilian, its elector, wasappointed head of the Catholic League which was formed in 1609 inopposition to the Protestant Union which had been formed in 1608.

  p. 33, l. 20. By the end of the sixteenth century the Turks hadadvanced far into Europe, had detached half of Hungary from theEmperor's dominions and made him pay tribute for the other half.During the seventeenth century, however, they were slowly driven back.

  p. 33, l. 37. In 1628 the two Dukes of Mecklenburg had been "put tothe ban" by the Emperor for having given help to Christian of Denmarkwho had taken up the cause of the Protestants.

  p. 34, l. 10. Gustavus Adolphus had been at war with Poland from 1617to 1629.

  p. 34, l. 30. This was not a treaty of active alliance. Both JohnGeorge of Saxony and George William of Brandenburg were Protestantprinces but they were at first anxious to maintain neutrality betweenSweden and the Emperor. The impolitic action of Ferdinand drove themto join Gustavus Adolphus in 1631.

  p. 34, l. 33. The German Diet was the meeting of the German princesto consult on imperial matters. Ratisbon is one of the chief towns ofBavaria.

  p. 35, l. 17. The story of Magdeburg is told on p. 42.

  p. 36, l. 1. Count Tilly was a Bavarian General of genius who had beenput at the head of the forces of the Catholic League in 1609.

  p. 36, l. 31. The Protestant Union formed in 1608 had been forced todissolve itself in 1621.

  p. 37, l. 5. Wallenstein is one of the greatest generals and the mostinteresting figure in seventeenth century history. A Bohemian by birthhe fought for the Emperor with an army raised by himself.

  p. 37, l. 16. The Conclusions of Leipsic are described on p. 39.

  p. 38, l. 29. The King of Hungary was Ferdinand (afterwards FerdinandIII) son of Ferdinand II. The "King of the Romans" was a titlebestowed on the person who was destined to become Emperor. (The Empirewas elective but tended to become hereditary.)

  p. 39, l. 39. The Peace of Augsburg, 1555, had been intended to settlethe differences between the Lutherans and Catholics but it had leftmany problems unsolved.

  p. 42, l. 21. The Protestant bishopric of Magdeburg had been forciblyrestored to the Catholics in 1629. In 1631 the citizens of their ownaccord, relying on Swedish help, declared against the Emperor.

  p. 47, l. 40. Torgau, a strongly fortified town in Saxony.

  p. 57, l. 37. The Prince of Orange at this time was William II whomarried Mary, daughter of Charles I.

  p. 59, l. 3. Except for the date, which should be 17th of September,and the numbers on both sides which he exaggerates, the Cavalier'saccount of the battle of Leipsic is fairly accurate.

  p. 61, l. 39. Cuirassiers were heavy cavalry wearing helmet andcuirass (two plates fastened together for the protection of the breastand back).

  p. 65, l. 10. _Crabats_ is an old form of _Croats_ the name of theinhabitants of Croatia.

  p. 66, l. 38. _Rix dollar_ is the English form of _Reichsthaler_ orimperial dollar.

  p. 67, l. 6. "Husband" is here used in the sense of "thrifty person."

  p. 69, l. 18. A ducat was a gold coin generally worth about nineshillings.

  p. 70, l. 29. This passage describes the conquest of the string ofecclesiastical territories known as the "Priest's Lane."

  p. 71, l. 23. A partisan was a military weapon used by footmen in thesixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and not unlike the halberd inform.

  p. 73, l. 10. "Bastion" is the name given to certain projectingportions of a fortified building.

  p. 78, l. 23. The Palatinate (divided into Upper and Lower) was aProtestant state whose elector, the son-in-law of James I, had beendriven out by the Emperor in 1620.

  p. 79, l. 11. _Reformado_: A military term borrowed from the Spanish,signifying an officer who, for some disgrace is deprived of hiscommand but retains his rank. Defoe uses it to describe an officer nothaving a regular command.

  p. 81, l. 15. Frederick, Elector Palatine, had been elected King bythe Protestants of Bohemia in opposition to the Emperor Ferdinand. Itwas his acceptance of this position which led to the confiscation ofhis Palatinate together with his new kingdom.

  p. 81, l. 24. James I had, after much hesitation, sent in 1625 anexpedition to the aid of the Elector, but it had miscarried. Charles Iwas too much occupied at home to prosecute an active foreign policy.

  p. 81, l. 35. The Elector died in the same year as Gustavus Adolphus.His son Charles Lewis was restored to the Lower Palatinate only, whichwas confirmed to him at the end of the war in 1648.

  p. 82, l. 3. The battle of Nieuport, one of the great battles betweenHolland and Spain, was fought in 1600 near the Flemish town of thatname. Prince Maurice won a brilliant victory under very difficultconditions.

  p. 82, l. 30. A ravelin is an outwork of a fortified building.

  p. 86, l. 16. It was the attempt in 1607 to force Catholicism on theProtestants of the free city of Donauwoerth which led to the formationof the Protestant Union in 1608.

  p. 87, l. 9. The Duringer Wald.--Thuringia Wald.

  p. 97, l. 29. Camisado (fr. Latin Camisia=a shirt) is generally usedto denote a night attack.

  p. 98, l. 4. Note the inconsistency between this statement of theCavaliers interest in the curiosities at Munich and his indifferencein Italy where he had "no gust to antiquities."

  p. 99, l. 7. Gustavus Adolphus had entered Nuremberg March 1631.Wallenstein was now bent on re-taking it.

  p. 100, l. 29. The Cavalier's enthusiasm for Gustavus Adolphus leadsto misrepresentation. The Swedish king has sometimes been blamed forfailing to succour Magdeburg.

  p. 101, l. 23. Redoubts are the most strongly fortified points in thetemporary fortification of a large space.

  p. 107, l. 13. The Cavalier glosses over the fact that GustavusAdolphus really retreated from his camp at Nuremberg, beingpractically starved out, as Wallenstein refused to come to anengagement.

  p. 110, l. 38. Though the honours of war in the battle of Luetzen wentto the Swedes it is probable that they lost more men than did theImperialists.

  p. 113, l. 37. The battle of Noerdlingen was one of the decisivebattles of the war. It restored to the Catholics the bishoprics of theSouth which Gustavus Adolphus had taken.

  p. 114, l. 39. The title "Infant" or "Infante" belongs to all princesof the royal house in Spain. The Cardinal Infant really brought 15000men to the help of the Emperor.

  p. 116, l. 37. The King of Hungary had succeeded to the command of theimperial army after the murder of Wallenstein in 1634.

  p. 119, l. 34. The treaty of Westphalia in 1648 ended the ThirtyYears' War by a compromise. The Emperor recognised that he could haveno real authority in matters of religion over the states governedby Protestant princes, North Germany remained Protestant, the South,Catholic.

  p. 120, l. 11. This statement is an anachronism. Prince Maurice ofNassau the famous son of William the Silent died in 1625.

  p. 120, l. 39. The Netherlands belonged to Spain in the seventeenthcentury but revolted. The Northern provinces which were Protestant wontheir independence, the Southern provinces which were Catholic (modernBelgium) submitted to Spain on conditions.

  p. 121, l. 19. The siege of Ostend, then in the hands of the Dutch,was begun in July 1601 and came to an end in September 1604, when thegarrison surrendered with the honours of war.

  p. 122, l. 31. In 1637 Laud had tried to force a new liturgy onScotland but this had been forcibly resisted. In 1638 the NationalCovenant against "papistry" was signed by all classes in Scotland.In the same year episcopacy was abolished there and Charles thereuponresolved to subdue the Scots by arms. This led to the first "Bishops'War" of 1639 which the Cavalier proceeds to describe.

  p. 126, l. 4. Mercenaries (soldiers who fought in any army for themere pay) were chiefly drawn from Switzerland in the seventeenthcentury.

  p. 127, l. 38. By the Treaty of Berwick signed in June 1638 Charlesconsented to allow the Scotch to settle their own ecclesiasticalaffairs. When they again resolved to abolish episcopacy he broke hisword and in 1640 the Second "Bishops'
War" took place. It was theexpenses of these wars which forced Charles to call parliament again.

  p. 135, l. 34. It was the English Prayer Book with some slight changesthat Laud had attempted to impose on the Scotch.

  p. 137, l. 31. Charles had in fact called the "Short Parliament" tomeet between these two expeditions but had quarrelled with it anddissolved it.

  p. 138, l. 7. The Scotch had no real part in the death of the King.The Presbyterians indeed upheld monarchy though not as Charlesunderstood it.

  p. 140, l. 26. The Long Parliament of 1640 passed an act by which itcould not be dissolved without its own consent.

  p. 143, l. 4. The Treaty of Ripon (October 1640) left Northumberlandand Durham in the hands of the Scotch until the King should be ableto pay the L850 a day during their stay in England which he promisedthem.

  p. 143, l. 9. The permanent treaty signed in 1641 gave consent toall the demands of the Scotch, including their freedom to abolishepiscopacy.

  p. 143, l. 29. The Earl of Stafford had been the chief supporter ofCharles' method of government without parliament. He was executed in1641 and Laud suffered the same fate in 1645.

  p. 144, l. 21. By the "Grand Remonstrance" the parliament tried toseize on the royal power.

  p. 146, l. 13. The "gentry" of England were not, of course, all on theRoyalist side. Many of them, and some of the nobility, fought for theparliament, though it is true that the majority were for the King.

  p. 151, l. 27. In 1643 by the Solemn League and Covenant the Scotchconsented to help parliament against the King on condition thatPresbyterianism should be adopted as the English state religion.

  p. 159, l. 33. The left wing was under the command of Lord Wilmot.

  p. 170, l. 36. Leicester was taken by the King in 1645.

  p. 180, l. 28. The Cavalier ascribes to himself the part taken byPrince Maurice (the brother of Prince Rupert) and Lord Wilmot inbringing aid to Hopton.

  p. 187, l. 29. It was the King rather than the parliamentarians whowas anxious to give battle. The Royalists barred the way to London.

  p. 189, l. 32. See note to p. 61, l. 39.

  p. 192, l. 29. The parliamentarians certainly won a victory at thesecond battle of Newbury.

  p. 194, l. 2. The Scotch nobles, alarmed at the violence of theparliamentarians, supported Charles in the second civil war (1648),and after his death Scotland recognised Charles II as King. Cromwellhowever conquered their country.

  p. 194, l. 27. In 1641 a great Irish rebellion had followed the recallof Strafford who had been Lord Lieutenant of that country.

  p. 195, l. 12. It was not until 1645, when his cause was declining inEngland, that Charles determined to seek direct help from the Irish.This he did in the Glamorgan Treaty of that year by which he agreedto the legal restoration of Catholicism in Ireland. But the Treaty wasdiscovered by the Parliament and Charles denied any knowledge of it.

  p. 196, l. 11. The "Grand Seignior" was the name generally given to theSultan of Turkey.

  p. 197, l. 5. William Prynne was the famous Puritan lawyer whoseimprisonment by the Star Chamber had made him one of the heroes ofPuritanism. George Buchanan was the famous Scotch scholar from whomJames I had derived much of his learning.

  p. 197, l. 28. The dates are given both according to our presentmode of reckoning and according to the old system by which the yearcommenced on 25th March.

  p. 198, l. 6. The Scots besieged Newcastle for nine months, not merelya few days as the Cavalier relates.

  p. 202, l. 39. The great Spanish general, the Duke of Parma, went tothe relief of Paris which was in the hands of the Catholics and wasbeing besieged by the then Protestant Henry of Navarre in 1590.

  p. 204, l. 9. As pointed out in the introduction the Cavalier'saccount of the disposition of forces in this battle is inaccurate.

  p. 205, l. 27. It was really Rupert's hitherto unconquered cavalrywhich was thus borne down by Cromwell's horse.

  p. 216, l. 4. A posset was a drink of milk curdled with an acidliquid.

  p. 219, l. 40. The Grisons are the people of one of the Swiss Cantons.

  p. 222, l. 36. Newcastle was not retaken by Rupert.

  p. 230, l. 8. By the Self-Denying Ordinance of 1645 all members ofParliament were compelled to resign their commands. This rid theparliamentarians of some of their most incapable commanders. Exceptionwas made in favour of Cromwell who was soon appointed LieutenantGeneral.

  p. 230, l. 17. On the "New Model" the armies of the parliamentary sidewere reorganized as a whole, made permanent, and given a uniform andregular pay.

  p. 231, l. 15. It was not only the ecclesiastical conditions laid downby the parliamentarians at the Treaty of Uxbridge which determined theKing's refusal. He was asked besides taking the Covenant to surrenderthe militia.

  p. 243, l. 26. The estates of many of the Cavalier gentlemen wereforfeited. Some were allowed to "compound," i.e. to keep part of theirestates on payment of a sum of money.

  p. 253, l. 32. Montrose had created a Royalist party in Scotland andwas fighting there for the King.

  p. 258, l. 1. The "forlorn" was a body of men sent in advance of anexpedition.

  p. 272, l. 21. After the defeat of the Royalists dissension arosebetween the parliament and the army and naturally the army was able tocoerce the parliament.

  p. 274, l. 2. Cornet Joyce secured the person of the King by the orderof Cromwell, the idol of the army.

  p. 274, l. 26. The Cavalier exaggerates the likelihood of anunderstanding between the King and the parliament. In reality Charleswas merely playing off one party against the other.

  p. 275, l. 7. In January 1648 parliament had passed a vote of "NoAddresses," renouncing any further negotiation with the King, butafter the second civil war of that year (in which the Presbyteriansjoined the King) they resumed them again in the Treaty of Newport.The army however became more violent, and the result was the forcibleexclusion of all moderate members of parliament in "Pride's Purge,"December 1648. The trial and execution of the King followed.

  p. 275, l. 35. The Cavalier refers to the acts of retaliation whichfollowed the Restoration of Charles II.

  p. 276, l. 27. There were many republicans among the "Independents"or "Sectaries" in the army, but the policy actually carried out canhardly have been planned before the war.

  p. 278, l. 5. Cardinal Bellarmine was one of the greatControversialists of the Counter-Reformation.

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