began to give expression to their secret feelings; John Saltmarsh, afterwards made chaplain in Fairfax's army, maintained, that at any rate the union of the king and the people must be prevented, and that, if the king would not concede every thing they desired, he should be extirpated, both he and his race, and the crown awarded to another. The pamphlet in which this language was held forth, was reported to the house of commons, but Henry Martyn spoke in its defence. "I see," said he, "no reason to condemn Mr. Saltmarsh; certainly the ruin of one family is better than that of a great many." "I beg," said Sir Nevil Pool," that Mr. Martyn should be ordered to explain to what family he alludes." "I mean the king and his children," replied Martyn, without hesitation; a violence of speech till then unprecedented, and which the party who professed it were far from being able to sustain. No new scame from Scotland; they did not even know whether the commissioners had arrived or not, and they daily feared to learn that the king was marching towards London, or that he had besieged Gloucester; the last place left to parliament in the west of the kingdom, and the only one which interrupted the communications of the royal army from the south-west to the north-east of the kingdom, and prevented their bringing their united forces to act togethert. September 9th, 1643; Parl. Hist. vol. iii. col. 165. Passions were controlled by danger; the parties coolly surveyed their situation. Neither one nor the other was strong enough easily to overthrow their adversaries, and find themselves afterwards in a state in which they could with advantage make either war or peace. Instead of seeking deliverance, the moderate in weakness, the zealots in frenzy; the former understood that before they treated they must conquer, and the latter, that to be victorious it was their duty to serve and that of their rivals to command. A committee, in which were included some of the warmest partisans of war", went to Essex 3, informed him of the measures which had just been taken to recruit and provide every necessary for his army, inquired what else he stood in need of; and in short, delivered the destiny of the nation into his hands, with the most signal proofs of the entire trust reposed in him by the parliament. The earl and his friends showed themselves, on their side, as desirous of war as if they had never formed any other wish: Hollis, who had obtained a passport for himself and family to retire to the continent, had it recalled, and remained in England; everywhere those persons who had once been accused of cowardice or treason, took the lead in making u Saint John, Strode, and Crew; to which, after some opposition, was added Mr. Pym. * The 4th of August, 1643; Journals of the House of Commons, 3rd, 15th, and 16th of August; Clarendon, Hist. of the Rebellion, preparations, efforts, and sacrifices; while their fiery adversaries, now reserved and humble, without display, seconded them with the warmest zeal. They even allowed Henry Martyn to be sent to the Tower for his last transgression", without offering much opposition, so firm was their resolution of sacrificing everything for a transient unanimity, the only means of safety. This judicious conduct was not fruitless; while Waller and Manchester were separately engaged in forming an army of reserve, men, money, and provisions of all sorts, were levied with astonishing rapidity to be conveyed to Essex, whose troops alone could be put in a state to return speedily to the field; four regiments of the London militia were to serve under him; and on the 24th of August, after a solemn review on Hounslow heath, in presence of nearly all the members of both houses, the earl departed at the head of fourteen thousand men, intending, by forced marches, to go to the assistance of Gloucester, which it was feared the king had closely blockaded for the last fortnight. Charles now much regretted that he had not, after his victories, made a more decisive attempt on London itself; a resolution to that effect having been formed on a plan which seemed to promise certain success: the king was to have advanced from the west, while lord Newcastle, a z The 16th of August, 1643; Parl. Hist., vol. iii. col. 161. May, Hist. of the Long. Parl., vol. ii. p. 241; Hollis, Memoirs, p. 16, in the Collection. who had been victorious in Yorkshire, was to have come from the north, and thus the two great royalist armies would have met under the walls of the city. After the capture of Bristol, Charles immediately sent Sir Philip Warwick, one of his most faithful adherents, to lord Newcastle to acquaint him with his plan, and request him to prepare accordingly. But the lords attached to the king's party were not generals whom he could command at his pleasure: they held their commission, not their power, from the king; and satisfied with upholding his cause in places where their influence prevailed, had no wish to remove, and thus risk the loss of their independence and their means of success. Newcastle, proud and profuse, fond of display and leisure, dreaded the fatigue and wearisomeness of controversy; and being himself surrounded by a little court, in which the elegance of his mind and manners attracted men of agreeable intercourse, he neither wished to join the crowd of courtiers at Oxford, nor to be lower in command in the king's army than so gross and ill-educated a stranger as prince Rupert. After having coldly listened to the proposals brought by Warwick, he said, "I remember the history of the rebellious Irishman, Tyrone, who was taken prisoner by the lord-lieutenant Mountjoy, and brought to queen Elizabeth; when he saw that at Whitehall the lord-lieutenant was scarcely noticed, and was waiting with the rest for the queen's appearance, he turned towards one of his countrymen and said, 'How ashamed I am of having been made a prisoner by a man whom I thought powerful, but whom I now see confounded in the crowd, and mean enough to dance attendance on a woman',-for my part, as long as Hull remains in the hands of the enemy, I cannot leave Yorkshire"." Warwick reported this answer to the king, who dared not resent it. He was still advised by some to march upon London; it was even the queen's opinion that he ought to do so; but the king had not much taste for dangerous enterprise, not that he feared danger, but he feared he should compromise his dignity; his pride had already been wounded the preceding year, when, after the battles of Edgehill and Brentford, he had been obliged to retrograde. Many good officers advised the siege of Gloucester, some with disinterested views, others in the hope of a rich booty; colonel William Legg even boasted that he was upon a safe footing of intelligence with Edward Massey, the governor of the place. The king at last resolved upon the siege, and on the 10th of August his army, commanded by himself in person, occupied the heights around the town, in which there were only fifteen thousand men in garrison, besides the inhabitants. Immediately upon arriving before the place, he summoned the governor to surrender, allow b Warwick's Memoirs, p. 200, 202, in the Collection; Clarendon, Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. vi. p. 191. c Clarendon, Hist. of the Rebellion, vol. vi. p. 169-173. |