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before them, to order me to halt, and expect the enemy, for that he would follow with the whole body.

But before this order reached me, I had halted for some time; for, finding myself discovered, and not judging it safe to be entirely cut off from the main body, I stopt at the village, and, causing my dragoons to alight, and line a thick hedge on my left, I drew up my horse 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 a terrible fire from the dragoons out of the hedge, which killed them near a hundred men. This being a perfect surprise to them, they halted; and just at that moment they received orders from their main body to retreat; the king at the same time appearing upon some small heights in their rear, which obliged them to think of retreating, or coming to a general battle, which was none of their design.

I had no occasion to follow them, not being in a condition to attack their whole body; but the dragoons coming out into the common, gave them another volley at a distance, which reached them effectually; for it killed about twenty of them, and wounded more; but they drew off, and never fired a shot at us, fearing 'to be enclosed between two parties, and so marched away to their general's quarters, leaving ten or twelve more of their fellows killed, and about a hundred and eighty horses. Our men, after the country fashion, gave them a shout at parting, to let them see we knew they were afraid of us.

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

CHAPTER XII.

CROMWELL MAKES HIS APPEARANCE ON THE STAGE, AND TURNS THE FORTUNE OF THE WAR AGAINST THE KING'S PARTY-FREQUENT AND DISASTROUS ACTIONS-THE SCOTS DECLARE FOR THE PARLIAMENT, AND ENTER ENGLAND, WITH AN ARMY IN THE NORTH-THE KING BRINGS IRISH REGIMENTS OVER, WHICH GIVES GREAT DISGUST -I AM DETACHED WITH PRINCE RUPERT TO THE RELIEF OF YORK, WHICH WE ACCOMPLISH-DISASTROUS ACTION WITH CROMWELL.

ABOUT this time it was that we first began to hear of one Oliver Cromwell, who, like a little cloud, rose out of the east, and spread first into the north, till it shed down a flood that overwhelmed the three kingdoms.

He first was a private captain of horse, but now commanded a regiment, whom he armed cap-a-pee a la cuirassier; and joining with the Earl of Manchester, the first action we heard of him, that made him anything famous, was about Grantham, where, with only his own regiment, he defeated twenty-four troops of horse and dragoons of the king's forces: then at Gainsborough, with two regiments, his own of horse, and one of dragoons, where he defeated near three thousand of the Earl of Newcastle's men, killed lieutenant-general Cavendish, brother to the Earl of Devonshire, who commanded them, and relieved Gainsborough; and though the whole army came in to the rescue, he made good his retreat to Lincoln with little loss; and the next week he defeated Sir John Henderson, at Winsby, near Horncastle, with sixteen regiments of horse and dragoons, himself having not half that number, killed the Lord Widdrington, Sir Ingram Hopton, and several gentlemen of quality.

Thus this firebrand of war began to blaze, and he soon grew a terror to the north; for victory attended him like a page of honour, and he was scarce ever known to be beaten during the whole war.

Now we began to reflect again on the misfortune of our master's counsels. Had we marched to London, instead of

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besieging Gloucester, we had finished the war with a stroke. The parliament's army was in a most despicable condition, and had never been recruited, had we not given them a month's time, which we lingered away at this fatal town of Gloucester. But it was too late to reflect; we were a disheartened army, but we were not beaten yet, nor broken ; we had a large country to recruit in, and we lost no time, but raised men apace. In the mean time his majesty, after a short stay at Bristol, makes back again towards Oxford with a part of the foot, and all the horse.

At Cirencester we had a brush again with Essex; that town owed us a shrewd turn for having handled them coarsely enough before, when Prince Rupert seized the county magazine. I happened to be in the town that night with Sir Nicholas Crisp, whose regiment of horse quartered there, with Colonel. Spencer, and some foot; my own regiment was gone before to Oxford. About ten at night, a party of Essex's men beat up our quarters by surprise, just as we had served them before; they fell in with us, just as people were going to bed, and having beaten the outguards, were gotten into the middle of the town, before our men could get on horseback. Sir Nicholas Crisp hearing the alarm, gets up, and, with some of his clothes on, and some off, comes into my chamber. We are all undone, says he, the roundheads are upon us. We had but little time to consult; but being in one of the principal inns in the town, we presently ordered the gates of the inn to be shut, and sent to all the inns where our men were quartered to do the like, with orders, if they had any back-doors, or ways to get out, to come to us. By this means, however, we got so much time as to get on horseback, and so many of our men came to us by back-ways, that we had near three hundred horse in the yards and places behind the house; and now we began to think of breaking out by a lane which led from the back part of the inn; but a new accident determined us another, though a worse way. The enemy being entered, and our men cooped up in the yards of the inns, Colonel Spencer, the other colonel, whose regiment of horse lay also in the town, had got on horseback before us and engaged with the enemy, but being overpowered, retreated fighting, and sends to Sir Nicholas Crisp for help. Sir Nicholas, moved to see the distress of his friend, turning to me, says he, What can we do for him? I told him I

VOL. II.

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thought it was time to help him, if possible; upon which, opening the inn gates, we sallied out in very good order, about three hundred horse; and several of the troops from other parts of the town joining us, we recovered Colonel Spencer, and charging home, beat back the enemy to their main body. But finding their foot drawn up in the church-yard, and several detachments moving to charge us, we retreated in as good order as we could. They did not think fit to pursue us, but they took all the carriages which were under the convoy of this party, and loaden with provisions and ammunition, and above five hundred of our horse. The foot shifted away as well as they could. Thus we made off in a shattered condition towards Farringdon, and so to Oxford, and I was very glad my regiment was not there.

We had small rest at Oxford, or indeed anywhere else; for the king was marched from thence, and we followed him. I was something uneasy at my absence from my regiment, and did not know how the king might resent it, which caused me to ride after them with all expedition. But the armies 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 shunning the action; but a colonel of a regiment ought to avoid absence from his regiment in time of fight, be the excuse never so just, as carefully as he would a surprise in his quarters. The truth is, it was an error of my own, and owing to two days' stay I made at the Bath, where I met with some ladies who were my relations; and this is far from being an excuse; for if the king had been a Gustavus Adolphus, I had certainly received a check for it.

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

Here the city trained-bands, of which there were two regiments, and whom we used to despise, fought very well. They lost one of their colonels, and several officers in the action; and I heard our men say, they behaved themselves as well as any forces the parliament had.

The parliament cried victory here too, as they always did; and, indeed, where the foot were concerned they had some advantage; but our horse defeated them evidently. The

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king drew up his army in battalia, in person, and faced them all the next day, inviting them to renew the fight, but they had no stomach to come on again.

It was a kind of a hedge-fight, for neither army was drawn out in the field; if it had, it would never have held from six in the morning till ten at night. But they fought for advantages; sometimes one side had the better, sometimes another. They fought twice through the town, in at one end, and out at the other, and in the hedges and lanes with exceeding fury. The king lost the most men, his foot having suffered for want of the succour of their horse, who, on two several occasions could not come at them. But the parliament foot suffered also, and two regiments were entirely cut in pieces, and the king kept the field.

Essex, the parliament general, had the pillage of the dead, and left us to bury them; for while we stood all day to our arms, having given them a fair field to fight us in, their camp rabble stript the dead bodies, and they not daring to venture a second engagement with us, marched away towards London.

The

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 twelve hundred men. Earl of Carnarvon was brought into an inn in Newbury, where the king came to see him. He had just life enough to speak to his majesty, and died in his presence. The king was exceedingly concerned for him, and was observed to shed tears at the sight of it. We were indeed all of us troubled for the loss of so brave a gentleman, but the concern our royal master discovered moved us more than ordinary. Everybody endeavoured to have the king out of the room, but he would not stir from the bed-side till he saw all hopes of life were gone.

The indefatigable industry of the king, his servants and friends, continually to supply and recruit his forces, and to harass and fatigue the enemy, was such, that we should still have given a good account of the war, had the Scots stood neuter. But bad news came every day out of the north; as for other places, parties were always in action; Sir William Waller and Sir Ralph Hopton beat one another by turns.; and Sir Ralph had extended the king's quarters from Launceston in Cornwall, to Farnham in Surrey, where he