and was debating about fortifying it, but came to no resolu tion, which was a very great oversight in them; the situation of the place, and the importance of it, on many accounts, to the city of London, considered; and they would have retrieved this error afterwards, but then it was too late; for the king made it the head-quarters, and received great supplies and assistance from the wealth of the colleges, and the plenty of the neighbouring country. Abingdon, Wallingford, Basing, and Reading, were all garrisoned and fortified as outworks, to defend this as the centre. And thus all England became the theatre of blood, and war was spread into every corner of the country, though as yet there was no stroke struck. I had no command in this army; my father led his own regiment; and, as old as he was, would not leave his royal master; and my elder brother stayed at home to support the family. As for me, I rode a volunteer in the royal troop of guards, which may very well deserve the title of a royal troop; for it was composed of young gentlemen, sons of the nobility, and some of the prime gentry of the nation, and I think not a person of so mean a birth or fortune as myself. We reckoned in this troop two-and-thirty lords, or who came afterwards to be such and eight-and-thirty of younger sons of the nobility, five French noblemen, and all the rest gentlemen of very good families and estates.

And that I may give the due to their personal valour, many of this troop lived afterwards to have regiments and troops under their command, in the service of the king; many of them lost their lives for him, and most of them their estates: nor did they behave unworthy of themselves in their first showing their faces to the enemy, as shall be mentioned in its place.

While the king remained at Shrewsbury, his loyal friends bestirred themselves in several parts of the kingdom. Goring had secured Portsmouth; but being young in matters of war, and not in time relieved, 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 afterwards did very good service upon all occasions, and so effectually cleared himself of the scandal the hasty surrender of Portsmouth had brought upon his courage.

The chief power of the king's forces lay in three places, in

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Cornwall, in Yorkshire, and at Shrewsbury. In Cornwall, Sir Ralph Hopton, afterwards Lord Hopton, Sir Bevil Granvil, and Sir Nicholas Slamming, secured all the country, and afterwards spread themselves over Devonshire and Somersetshire, took Exeter from the parliament, fortified Bridgewater and Barnstable, and beat Sir William Waller at the battle of Roundway Down, as I shall touch at more particularly, when 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, and all the considerable places, and took the field with a very good army, though afterwards he proved more unsuccessful than the rest, having the whole power of a kingdom at his back, the Scots coming in with an army to the assistance of the parliament; which indeed was the general turn of the scale of the war; for, had it not been for the Scots' army, the king had most certainly reduced the parliament, at least to good terms of peace, in two years' time.

The king was the third article: his force at Shrewsbury I have noted already; the alacrity of the gentry filled him with hopes, and all his army with vigour, and the 8th of October, 1642, his majesty gave orders to march. The Earl of Essex had spent above a month after his leaving London (for he went thence the 9th of September) in modelling and drawing together his forces; his rendezvous was at St. Albans, from whence he marched to Northampton, Coventry, and Warwick, and leaving garrisons in them, he comes on to Worcester. Being thus advanced, he possesses Oxford, as I noted before, Banbury, Bristol, Gloucester, and Worcester, out of all which places, except Gloucester, we drove him back to London in a very little while.

Sir John Biron had raised a very good party of five hundred horse, most gentlemen, for the king, and had possessed Oxford; but on the approach of Lord Say quitted it, being now but an open town, and retreated to Worcester; from whence, on the approach of Essex's army, he retreated to the king. And now all things grew ripe for action, both parties having secured their posts, and settled their schemes of the war, taken their posts and places as their measures and opportunities directed, the field was next in their eye, and the soldiers began to inquire when they should fight; for as yet there had been little or no blood drawn, and it was not long before they had

enough of it; for I believe I may challenge all the historians in Europe to tell me of any war in the world where, in the space of four years, there were so many pitched battles, sieges, fights, and skirmishes, as in this war; we never encamped or intrenched, never fortified the avenues to our posts, or lay fenced with rivers and defiles; here was no leaguers in the field, as at the story of Nuremberg, neither had our soldiers any tents, or what they call heavy baggage. It was the general maxim of this war, Where is the enemy? let us go and fight them: or, on the other hand, if the enemy was coming, What was to be done? why, what should be done? draw out into the fields, and fight them. I cannot say it was the prudence of the parties, and had the king fought less he had gained more; and I shall remark several times, when the eagerness of fighting was the worst council, and proved our loss. This benefit however happened in general to the country, that it made a quick, though a bloody end, of the war, which otherwise had lasted till it might have ruined the whole nation.

CHAPTER X.

THE ROYAL ARMY TAKES THE FIELD-ACTION WITH THE REBELS UNDER ESSEX-BATTLE OF EDGEHILL-THE PARLIAMENT CLAIMS THE VICTORY-THEY VOTE AN ADDRESS FOR PEACE-SAD REFLECTIONS ON THE MISERIES OF CIVIL WAR.

Sir

On the 10th of October the king's army was in full march, his majesty generalissimo, the Earl of Lindsey, general of the foot, Prince Rupert, general of the horse; and the first action in the field was by Prince Rupert and Sir John Biron. John had brought his body of five hundred horse, as I noted already, from Oxford to Worcester; the Lord Say, with a strong party, being in the neighbourhood of Oxford, and expected in the town; Colonel Sandys, a hot man, and who had more courage than judgment, advances with about fifteen hundred horse and dragoons, with design to beat Sir John Biron out of Worcester, and take post there for the parliament.

The king had notice that the Earl of Essex designed for Worcester, and Prince Rupert was ordered to advance with

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a body of horse and dragoons, to face the enemy, and bring off Sir John Biron. This his majesty did to amuse the Earl of Essex, that he might expect him that way; whereas the king's design was to get between the Earl of Essex's army and the city of London; and his majesty's end was doubly answered; for he not only drew Essex on to Worcester, where he spent more time than he needed, but he beat the party into the bargain.

seen.

I went volunteer in this party, and rid in my father's regiment; for though we really expected not to see the enemy, yet I was tired with lying still. We came to Worcester just as notice was brought to Sir John Biron that a party of the enemy was on their march for Worcester, upon which the prince, immediately consulting what was to be done, 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 confidently in the morning, and found us fairly drawn up to receive them; I must confess this was the bluntest downright way of making war that ever was The enemy, who, in all the little knowledge I had of war, ought to have discovered our numbers, and guessed by our posture what our design was, might easily have informed themselves that we intended to attack them, and so might have secured the advantage of a bridge in their front; but, without any regard to these methods of policy, they came on at all hazards. Upon this notice, my father proposed to the prince to halt for them, and suffer ourselves to be attacked, since we found them willing to give us the advantage; the prince approved of the advice, so we halted within view of a bridge, leaving space enough on our front for about half the number of their forces to pass and draw up; and at the bridge was posted about fifty dragoons, with orders to retire as soon as the enemy advanced, as if they had been afraid. On the right of the road was a ditch, and a very high bank behind, where we had placed three hundred dragoons, with orders to lie flat on their faces till the enemy had passed the bridge, and to let fly among them as soon as our trumpets sounded a charge. Nobody but Colonel Sandys would have been caught in such a snare; for he might easily have seen that, when he was over the bridge, there was not room enough for him to fight in; but "The Lord of Hosts" was

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so much in their mouths, for that was the 'word for that day, that they took little heed how to conduct the host of the Lord to their own advantage.

As we expected, they appeared, beat our dragoons from the bridge, and passed it; we stood firm in one line with a reserve, and expected a charge; but Colonel Sandys, showing a great deal more judgment than we thought he was master of, extends himself to the left, finding the ground too straight, and began to form his men with a great deal of readiness and skill; for by this time he saw our number was greater than he expected; the prince perceiving it, and foreseeing that the stratagem of the dragoons would be frustrated by this, immediately charges with the horse, and the dragoons at the same time standing upon their feet, poured in their shot upon those that were passing the bridge; this surprise put them into such disorder that we had but little work with them; for though Colonel Sandys, with the troops next him, sustained the shock very well, and behaved themselves gallantly enough, yet, the confusion beginning in their rear, those that had not yet passed the bridge were kept back by the fire of the dragoons, and the rest were easily cut in pieces. Colonel Sandys was mortally wounded and taken prisoner, and the crowd was so great to get back, that many pushed into the water, and were rather smothered than drowned. Some of them who never came into the fight were so frightened that they never looked behind them, till they came to Pershore; and, as we were afterwards informed, the life-guards of the general who had quartered in the town, left it in disorder enough, expecting us at the heels of their men.

If our business had been to keep the parliament army from coming to Worcester, we had a very good opportunity to have secured the bridge at Pershore; but our design lay another way, as I have said, and the king was for drawing Essex on to the Severn, in hopes to get behind him, 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 the funeral of some of his men; and from thence he advances to Worcester.

We marched back to Worcester extremely pleased with the good success of our first attack; and our men were so flushed with this little victory, that it put vigour into the